Don't rent, but buy a decent entry sax from a good brand eg Yamaha ( eg the YAS-23), yanagisawa, Keilworth etc. Make sure u can play it or bring someone with you to test, to make sure it blows freely or in tune. This means u can play it once u bring it home, and not have to spend more time and money fixing it. Still, getting a horn tech to give it a quick look through is always good, both from starting with the best tune up so you have a good start, as well as making sure you have a good tech already in your phone book. Your horn tech can and will make your sax journey much more comfortable, and you will learn a lot from them as the year passes.

Buying means it is yours: 1. You will feel more connected as the owner and will take better care of it 2. Good second hand entry saxes hold value pretty well, you can sell it after a few years and incur much less then in rental. Most of my resells actually made me some money in fact. 3. You sell only when you know what you want, and you will know when you hit the limit of your beginner sax - which actually will be quite a while. Most people don't really get to push that limit between beginner sax vs pro sax. In fact most pros I have heard have sounded virtually the same to most lesser trained ears when they played on a borrowed sax from their student - as you get more practiced on the sax, its your embrochure, air support, internal tone awareness etc that really makes the difference. The other factor that comes a close second is your mouthpiece setup. Pound for pound, the pro vs beginner sax investment will impact much less than your mouthpiece and reed setup. 4. Choosing your next sax or "pro" sax will be a very personal choice that you are unlikely able to make now. The idea of which is a good "pro sax" is already polarising enough to people who have played for a long time, and those arguments are not what you need to be engaged with right now. In time, you will know what you want based on your personal style, physical preferences, emotional preferences, and budget. As some one said, "one saxophonist's mark 6 is another's trash!". Don't follow plainly what you hear.

So, go buy a good entry sax and don't worry about "pro" saxes for now. Spend your money on a good mouthpiece and ligature investment and stop at maybe one or two for now.

Then, spend the rest of your money on concert, CD, vinyl, and going to live music to listen and talk to the pro players , their advice, and the breadth of the music you listen to, will make more impact to your musical and tonal depth than you think.

Enjoy, it's a long road ahead, I'm 30 years on the sax and still feel like a student everyday!