Following on from their disappointing (some might even say unnecessary) release of Enrique Rodríguez in April (same tracks as Reliquias, poor fidelity), July saw another new release on Tango Collection: an album of Troilo instrumentals which includes those rare tracks from Troilo’s 1938 session with Odeón: Comme il faut and Tinta verde. EMI Odeón, to their shame, have never reprinted these tracks. So, how is this new album?! Because when I saw the track list I was quite excited, and hopeful that this would be another classic from RGS.

Sadly, the new CD is disappointing to the experienced ear. There is way too much noise reduction especially on the Odeón tracks. Now, what one makes of this depends a lot on the listener. If you mostly listen to tango music in your kitchen, the excessive noise reduction will not be offensive – it’s no worse, for instance, than the RCA-Victor 100 Años D’Agostino-Vargas CD, which we all liked at the time. So in summary, the kitchen tanguero will be delighted, but for the connoisseur the new CD is little short of a disaster. Place yourself on this spectrum and then decide whether you want one – don’t worry, I won’t tell any one ;-)

Headphones for DJ-ing have slightly different requirements than for normal use. The main one is that you have swivel cups on the earpieces, so that it’s easy to hold just one earpiece to your ear – then you can still hear what’s going on for the dancers.

For many years Sony’s MDR-V series have offered very good value for DJ-ing, but a few users have complained about its sturdiness and reliability. Sony have addressed these concerns with the new MDR-V55, which replaces the MDR-V500. These headphones have 40mm drive units so they are loud and they cover your ears really well. The new ‘phones come in four colour trims. The rrp is £89, but you can get the red trim version for as little as £52. Mac users may well prefer the white version which is similarly priced.