I was gonna say the absolute lowest I would go for a classical instrument is $500. Any lower than that and it's going to be some chinese piece of shit that is impossible to play and won't stay in tune.
I've got some expensive ass guitars but my cello was a cheapo since it wasn't my primary instrument. One year I attended the Aspen Music festival and started selling weed to some cellists. One night one of them let me play their cello, it was worth $300,000 or something ridiculous, I just played a couple lines of the Bach suite in G and I was blown away at how good it sounded. Not only how good it sounded, but how EASY it was to make the instrument sound beautiful. My hunk of crap, by contrast, felt like I was fighting with it to get a sweet tone.
I've got some expensive ass guitars but my cello was a cheapo since it wasn't my primary instrument. One year I attended the Aspen Music festival and started selling weed to some cellists. One night one of them let me play their cello, it was worth $300,000 or something ridiculous, I just played a couple lines of the Bach suite in G and I was blown away at how good it sounded. Not only how good it sounded, but how EASY it was to make the instrument sound beautiful. My hunk of crap, by contrast, felt like I was fighting with it to get a sweet tone.