There is no way to tell exactly what violin is going to sound the best. You can get a good idea of the quality sound of the instrument by if its hand crafted, who made it and country of origin but none of these will guarantee if an instrument is going to sound better than another. That is why you shouldn’t even worry about all of these factors and just try a variety instruments in your price range and pick which one sounds the best. That is all that really matters anyways right?
By either playing the violins yourself that are in your price range or having another violinist play them for you, this will give you a better idea on exactly what violins sound the best in your price range. If you have the ability to play anything at all with the violin it is better to play it yourself regardless how inexperienced you are. Every violin sounds different with different players so that is why playing it yourself is probably the best. Once you have the violins narrowed down to a few you could either take them home for a week to see which one you like or make your decision based on going back and forth between the two. Remember to choose the instrument that sounds the best and not worry about anything else.

The number one thing that you should be looking for in buying a violin is the instruments quality of sound. I highly recommend either buying or renting at a local shop so that you can find this out for sure. The reason why this is so important is the better a violin sounds, the better it will make you sound and the more motivated you will be to practice and progress. Not to mention you will impress those you are playing for far greater than if you were to play on an instrument that sounded terrible.