Rafe Arnott

Sharing music has always been a big priority in my life. While the way I’ve come to share music has changed a fair amount over the decades since I started making dupes of cassettes I’d bought, or recording LPs I scored from a record store as a teenager, the underlying desire to connect with others through music hasn’t changed at all.

Hungarian composer and pianist Béla Viktor János Bartók lived a life of 65 years straddling two centuries (1881 ~ 1945) that arguably saw more social, cultural and technological upheaval than almost any other span of time before or after.

It’s that time of year when we’re not really paying attention to the digital-audio newscycle if we can help it – in case you forgot it’s the holiday season and everyone is supposed to be sharing family time, toasting old friends, and relaxing with loved ones.

Choosing a Product of The Year for AudioStream is a balancing act; there’s a lot of pros and cons to weigh when making a decision that is distilling a year’s worth of high-fidelity listening time down to one product that made such a difference that it could qualify earning such a lofty title.