Tough Question. It used to be that the best student instruments were made by Yamaha and Jupiter, this is now changing and there are now many other good makes available at a very reasonable price, but you should beware: although some are extremely good, many are very bad. It is best to get a teacher or experienced player to test the saxophone before buying it. Don’t be tempted by the $9 – $200 saxophones on eBay from the far east, it may cost more to return for a refund than the saxophone is worth, even if you can get a refund. If you buy a saxophone via mail order you should take it to a good repair person to check it over and set it up to play properly.However there have recently been some extremely good saxophones from China and Taiwan, but it’s worth paying just a little bit extra to buy from an online store with a guarantee and no quibble returns policy than many of the eBay sellers. You should also expect the saxophone to need a little setting up by a repairer (same applies even to top of that range horns bought via mail order) and probably a better mouthpiece, e.g. Yamaha 3C or 4C)