Zavfino Copperhead X: Price & Specs | From €7,500

Let’s hear what the refreshing brought about. The Canadian record player manufacturer Zavfino has overhauled its Copperhead X – listed at 7,490 euros. Reason enough for LowBeatsto order the beautiful turner for testing. High end from the land under the maple leaf still has an exotic bonus in this country. Not to mention the sympathy bonus that North Americans have over their southern neighbor with its Sun King president. Welcome, Zavfino Copperhead X.

Name Research Zavfino Copperhead X

Strictly speaking, the company from Truro (located in the province of Nova Scotia) is actually called “1877 Phono Zavfino”, or Zavfino 1877 Phono, as the logo shows. The combination of the year of birth of Thomas Alva Edison’s phonograph and thus of mechanical sound recording with the Italian-sounding made-up word has complex trademark law reasons that should not spoil our mood here. For reasons of readability, we will leave it at Zavfino.

CEO Will Tremblett has nothing against that either, and he explained the name of the record player to us – the others have more prosaic names, such as ZV5-X Coy, ZV8 X and ZV11-X. The inspiration was not the North American Copperhead Snake or the San Francisco Band from the early 1970s, which the author initially assumed, but Steve Earle’s song “Copperhead Road” from the album of the same name in 1988. Classic car fan Will also discovered a roadster from the 1930s, called the Copperhead, at a show in Ontario. Song and Hot Rod of course refer to the snake, so that the poisonous viper species is at least indirectly based on the name.

Die Company

Zavfino 1877 Phono started in 2004 as an OEM supplier with various accessories for more or less large turntable manufacturers. In 2015 they were able to present their first player, the ZV5, with the first edition of the Aeshna tonearm.

The company has now grown healthily under its CEO Will Tremblett. The depth of production and the mechanical and electrical engineering know-how of the Nova Scotians can keep up with top international addresses.

The basic construction of the Copperhead X

If you look at it soberly, the Copperhead On the one hand, the Eastern Canadians completely outsource the control unit and power supply to the controller. This means that mechanical vibrations can be completely removed from the chassis and electromagnetic hum interference can be far away from the pickup’s sensitive generator.

By the way, the control unit is completely new compared to the 2022 version; it now also allows the speeds to be fine-tuned with two controllers. The player also comes with a kind of flashlight for control purposes, but using it is a bit complicated. With a simple plate support plus a strobe light (e.g. from Clearaudio) things go faster. A control with a sine generator then monitors the speed itself. A well-respected transatlantic partner was involved in the circuit: Walter Fuchs, valued worldwide for his “no-bullshit” products (and by the author also for his knowledge of classical music), developed the BRS-XF-880 controller from scratch for the new generation. More robust, more accurate and more versatile than the original, as Tremblett praises.

A multi-core cable creates the power connection to the motor. It is also located in an aluminum compartment weighing around two kilograms, which finds its place in a recess on the left-hand side in the chassis – please keep it at least two millimeters apart. The spatial and therefore mechanical separation of the engine block and chassis definitely makes sense, so the inevitable vibrations of an electric motor cannot be transmitted into the chassis and thus possibly into the scanner needle. In the current version, Will Tremblett inserts an anti-vibration gel into the floor.

The Copperhead’s 16-volt AC motor drives the 35 millimeter thick, approximately 5.5 kg plate via an interestingly notched (to avoid serious resonance, of course) POM pulley with a silicone round belt. The torque is relatively weak (low torque), so it takes a few seconds until the diamond-ground disc is up to speed.

The platter rotates with a polished stainless steel axle in an inverted platter bearing with a bronze bushing and cold shock-treated ceramic ball.

The bearing itself rests on a 15 mm thick POM/acrylic disc in the chassis. How this is attached shows the detailed work and consistency of the Canadians when it comes to resonance reduction. Twelve stainless steel screws, arranged in four groups of three, turn in polyamide threads that are literally “tailored” to the screws in terms of hardness and temperature resistance. The decoupling from the actual chassis: mission accomplished!

The chassis made of 16.2 mm thick, CNC-milled aluminum weighs almost 15 kilograms and rests on three height-adjustable, spike-reinforced feet, which enable a confidently secure stand with plenty of ground clearance precisely “in the water”. The eye-catcher and unique selling point in the turntable world are the high-precision embedded 28 copper bolts on the right side. Attempting to “dig up” just one of them without using force is doomed to failure – the CNC machines work too precisely for that. From the author’s point of view, they look wonderful with the sandblasted “Satin Black” finish, but of course these bon mots also serve to reduce resonance. Another tiny, externally visible difference to the predecessor’s chassis: On the small copper plate on the front left under the company logo it no longer says “Belt Drive Turntable” but “Black Road”, a reminiscence of the company address 772 Black Road Road.

The Aeshna Carbon…

… remained. With an effective mass of 8.5 grams over a length of nine and a half inches, the straight rotating tonearm is one of the “lighter” representatives of its class. And this despite the fact that it houses an inner tube made of aluminum in its outer carbon tube – there is also an aluminum and a titanium version – from the outer tube through a – that’s right! – Resonance-reducing gel mass separated. The basic idea was realized together with a “UK based designer/engineer/legend having 25 years experience” who claimed “the right way or hit the highway”.

For storage, Zavfino combines a ceramic ball bearing horizontally and a magnetically damped cutting bearing vertically. When it comes to the latter keyword, precision mechanics fans naturally sit up and take notice. Its theoretical freedom of play was usually associated with disadvantages in practice. One of the few who offers completely successful solutions is the German industrial designer Helmut Thiele (diploma thesis: turntable with a single-point tonearm). And because the analog world is still sometimes small, the proven analog freak Thiele helped improve the Aeshna to its current level. Which we can only describe as “exemplary”.

Construction and placement

The German distributor IAD sent its top man Krey Baumgartl, who immediately scored points with his license plate in the author’s driveway. With NE-RD 3345, the man can show where his preferences lie with the mobile vehicle.

The construction then proceeded quickly, Baumgartl had the matter under control, the author had prepared the gaming table and its decoupling to the salesperson’s satisfaction. Then there was an unplanned interruption. A not entirely unimportant screw was missing – and so the author had to do the second part of the setup alone after the part was delivered. The fact that he succeeded in this may speak for the user-friendliness of the turner.

Following are the usual standards that precede every test:

The included copper tonearm cable “The Mahone” (no longer the previously applied “The Spirit”) finds its way to the connection below the tonearm in the T1 version (unit price 249 euros) with a 90 degree angled DIN plug. From there it goes to the phono amplifier.

The hearing test preparation

With the consent of the sales department, LowBeats equipped the Aeshna tonearm with the new Ortofon MC X40, which can rightly be considered the successor to the Quintet Black S with which Zavfino equipped the “old” Copperhead. The Canadians now also like to have Aeshna photographed with a Swiss pickup from EMT, which of course there is nothing wrong with. But the MC X40 was at hand in the author’s listening room, so to speak. In addition, the leader of Ortofon’s new MC

After the LowBeats test of the VPI Model One turntable, the MC stage in the tried-and-tested Octave HP 500 SE tube preamplifier, which was set to 100 ohm final impedance and drove the MRE 120 tube monos, took care of his signals again. The loudspeakers were the Martin Logan ESL Impression hybrid electrostats, which were perfectly calibrated to the room and with the finest resolution.

The thin leather mat supplied by the manufacturer was used as a support mat. For photo purposes, the author initially did not use a weight, but in the actual listening session he almost always used the “puck secret weapon”, the DW01 by Helmuth Thiele. Since the German inventor also had a hand in the Zavfino tonearm, this shouldn’t cause any diplomatic irritation.

The hearing test

But the record player wanted to show its Canadian provenance with a special nod to its homeland. This may be the first HiFi listening test (almost) exclusively featuring Canadian main players. Have fun!

Of course, the Empress of Canadian singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell takes precedence. Of course, we could have played almost any of the great artist’s records, especially “Blue” or “Hejira”. Because almost every serious music lover knows them anyway, we decided on the slightly less popular, but still high-speed album “Wild Things Run Fast”.

On her eleventh studio album, Mitchell turned her back on the long-held jazz in favor of more compact, but certainly not simpler songs. The title song, which is just 2:12 minutes long, starts off like heavy metal, with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta really putting his foot down. But then the band shifts down two gears without becoming boring. The Zavfino reproduced the great interplay and of course Joni’s alto to soprano voice, which was still in full bloom at the time, the way the author likes it and needs it: neatly defined, with drive and yet not a fun-filled analysis of how much reverb was added via the mixer back then.

Not in the same league, but still top-notch, Sarah McLachlan competed in 1997 with her Montreal-produced album “Surfacing.” Contrary to the title, it didn’t remain superficial, but instead offered one of the most touching ballads of the decade with “Angel”.

Contrary to the CD (and the terrible digital remaster that followed), the LP always offered an amazing dynamic range for the time it was made. The Zavfino also brought this out of the groove convincingly in terms of fine dynamics and plunged into emotional depths that are not a given in this price range.

Of course, Canada also has fantastic male singer/songwriters. Above all, of course, the old master Leonard Cohen (1934-2016). One of his greatest songs, “Hallelujah,” has been covered so often and so often inconsequentially that we, with the exception of Jeff Buckley, would like to ban the cover.

Let people hear the original, released in December 1984 on Cohen’s seventh studio album, “Various Positions.” “Hallelujah” opens side 2, the master’s voice has slipped a little deeper since the 1970s. But the emotional power is crazy. If you’re not fighting back tears, you should go to a psychiatrist or buy a better system. The Copperhead

Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023) could and can claim a few more minutes of eternal fame. He exuded plenty of pleasing melodies in the realms between country, folk and pop rock, with “If You Read my Mind” and “Sundown” he even has two slots on format radio forever.

But the man with the gentle baritone voice recorded a much bigger, stronger and deeper song on his 1976 album “Summertime Dream”: “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.” The LP sounds worlds better than any CD version. What the Copperhead made clear once again with subtle volume differences in the snare drum and lots of nuances in the voice.

Ok, if we’re going to start letting it rip, let’s do it properly. Bachman Turner Overdrive (emerging from the Guess Who, among others) had a worldwide mega hit in 1974 with the stuttering song “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. It was quite by chance that he came across the accompanying LP “Not Fragile”. Useless knowledge, part so and so much: Apple once used the cracking riff of the title song as the soundtrack for the computer game “Bachman”, with which the then small competitors of the hi-tech giants wanted to compete with the ubiquitous “Pacman”. Useless knowledge, part one: On the album, the band swings a “sledgehammer” long before Peter Gabriel. The reviewer once again turned it up big time – and enjoyed the channel-separated guitar work from Randy Bachman and Blair Thornton as well as the crisp dynamics.

And because it was so nice, he went one step further. If rock, then April Wine, and if April Wine, then “Say Hello” from her 1979 album “Harder… Faster”. Let’s put aside all the talk about the injustices of the rock business and say: Even if no one knows the title (yet), it is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Especially because he doesn’t spit brutally, but grooves coolly. The Zavfino credibly pushed this up to the highest levels.

Now banging drums and groovy guitars, heartbreaking voices and comfort for the soul are the other thing. Only: The toughest test for vinyl chains is and remains piano solo. And of course Canada produced one of the greatest keyboard geniuses of all time in Glenn Gould (1932-1982).

This maverick eccentric recorded Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” twice: in 1955 on a rapid, unbelievable tour de force without the actually prescribed repetitions; In 1981, shortly before his death, again with a touch of “autumnal mildness”. Before the author gets carried away with an endless lecture: Zavfino’s reproduction contained all tonal fluctuations, and even in the trails of fading tones in the slow movements he remained extremely cleanly on track.

At the other end of the classical music instrumentation scale there would be a large orchestra, if possible with a choir. But even if the writer searches intensively through his musical memory, he cannot come up with a relevant Canadian composer. But: a world-class orchestra from there. The Montréal Symphony Orchestra, or, as one has to write it in the bilingual country: the Orchester Symphonique de Montréal, has produced many magnificent recordings, including a reference recording of Maurice Ravel’s ballet music “Daphnis et Chloé” under their Canadian-born, Swiss-born conductor Charles Dutoit.

Pretty much the entire color palette of a large orchestra is painted here, including a textless choir. The numerous wow effects of the 1980s Decca production are not first-class audiophile quality, but are ideal for examining the spatial imaging and tonal differentiation in detail. Here too: Lots of praise, little blame (for some negligence in the depth of the room) for the Zavfino Copperhead X.

Fazit Zavfino Copperhead X

Even compared to the excellent VPI Forever Model One that was recently tested here for 7600 euros, the Zavfino Phono1877 Copperhead X does its Canadian builders credit. If the US sub-chassis player can offer a touch more pulling power, the Canadian challenger can cope with large line-ups a little more image-stable. The Copperhead X is also characterized by its excellent smoothness and very accurate spatial representation. His Aeshna tonearm is one of the best radial tonearms on the market in this class. Construction and handling are easy. The “small” Zavfino turner offers the best working conditions for an adequate pickup. Like the VPI, it is one of the real price-performance champions under 8,000 euros.

Zavfino Copperhead X	2025/12
OUTSTANDING

Klang Praxis processing

The rating always refers to the respective price range.

	Very well balanced sound with clearly contoured bass
	Excellent tonearm
	Easily upgraded to balanced XLR with Zavfino Highlands MK2 tonearm cable
	Speed ​​control and fine adjustment are quite complicated in practice

Distribution:
IAD GmbH
Johann-Georg-Halske-Strasse 11
41352 Korschenbroich
www.zavfino.audio

Preis (Manufacturer recommendation):
Zavfino Copperhead X: ab 7.490 Euro

The technical data

Teammates and opponents: