Got this as my first (well made) ocarina, having started on a 3d printed one (V0n3 by EC, which plays well off the print bed and even better with a small amount of sanding) and a cheap Awef one I paid very little for, that was, surprisingly, mostly in tune. Though I needed a professional ocarina to compare to.
In terms of ergonomics this is an extremely good ocarina, though the finger positions were a bit hard to get used to at first, however this is more likely due to my lack of experience and the very smooth, well finished feel of the instrument, it fits my medium-large hands fairly well, the only real difficulty being the right pinky hole and a bit of strain on my left pinky. However the fact that the ocarina is very pointed on the right hand side and has a capella for me to rest my left index finger on the left hand side makes playing high notes very easy as even on the high F I easily have 3 points of contact with my hands and a further fourth at my lips, making it very stable.
The reason it doesn't get 5* for sound is that the low B and especially low A are very difficult to hit reliably due to them needing very low breath pressure, which also makes them very quiet notes. However the breath curve from low C up to high F is logical and fairly exponential after high C, no acute bend needed, with the acute bend technique affecting the high notes negatively, which is a good thing as you don't need to bob your head up and down to play high notes followed by low notes.
The ocarina comes with a case (soft on the outside, I wouldn't transport the ocarina in a bag in that case, but it's fine for storing it at home) and a very good method book explaining things for beginners, the German language part seems to be more detailed from the pieces I've translated, but both languages are good for beginners, the sheet music comes with tabs initially, usually only for new notes which may help with learning sheet music unfortunately there isn't much in there that I would enjoy playing, mostly German/Austrian traditional/folk with some English and Irish traditional/folk music, from very basic up to moderately complex.
Pros:
Good quality ceramic ocarina made by Hans Rötter
Perfectly in tune
Excellent sound
Good ergonomics for playing higher notes
Cons:
Right pinky hole feels hard to get, even after 12 days of playing for 1-3 hours a day (average of 2h)
Low B and A require very low breath pressure and are a little quiet as a result.
It's an excellent ocarina and I'm glad I went with it rather than a plastic one like the night by noble.
PS: Regarding delivery, I wish Thomann had an alternative to DHL. They aren't the best, despite instructions to leave the package in my shed if there was no answer at the door, I was in, the door was knocked and in the 30 or so seconds it took for me to answer the driver had left the package on the doorstep and was already in the van driving away. For the UK Royal Mail is usually the most reliable in terms of leaving a package in a sheltered, out of sight place.
