Swiss brand Nagra was founded back in 1951. Over the years it has built an enviable reputation for cutting-edge portable tape recorders for the film, broadcasting and security industries, picking up multiple Oscar and Emmy wins for technical excellence on the way. Fittingly, the brand name translates to ‘will record’ in Polish.
It wasn’t until 1998 that Nagra launched its first hi-fi product, the PL-P preamplifier. Back then, it retailed for around £5700 ($9500), pretty much at the top of the tree as far as stereo preamps were concerned. This unit was unlike anything the high-end establishment was producing and borrowed heavily from the technology and aesthetics of the company’s esteemed recorders. The most obvious link to those units was the use of battery power. There are eight rechargeable ‘D’ cells in the Nagra PL-P. The use of these batteries and
