Cdenny - I have been keeping that in mind that she plays but is not a luthier for sure, I think I will definitely be taking it to an actual luthier instead of the last standard 'music shop' I took it too last time, thanks for the advice on the finish.  If that turns out to be the problem I may have no choice but to work it down a bit on my own.  Have been hearing that the costs are quite extensive on any more 'serious' repair work but we shall see.

Ken - Hi again .  Psarianos does have some very uncommon hours, I got an e-mail back from them stating that it would be best for me to call them, set up an appointment for an estimate and go from there.  I'll have to look for the luthier on Middlebelt because the place I take my lessons is right in that area as well.  Could even be the same place (Cameron's Music) as they told me they have a luthier that comes in there and does work for them.  I'll have to check out Wilsons as well, I know that is right in the same area as Psarianos, thanks for the directions out there!  Those will help a ton.  Unfortunately if it does turn out that my violin can't be fixed or would have extensive costs involved it'd be the end of my journey for a while.  Lucked out getting this violin as it is and funds for a new one are out of the question but keeping my fingers crossed .

I definitely won't give up hope easy that's for sure lol.  That violin sounds very sweet, love the sound!  The funny part is that your old case looks very similar to mine now.  Maybe it's because I'm still so new but to me the sound on mine sounds very nice as it is honestly.  I of course want it to sound like it 'should' but if I can figure out how to upload an mp3 here I'll post it up in here in a few.

Okay, I think I figured it out lol, here's a sample:

Thanks Pierre, I've actually talked to one of the luthiers around the area and he quoted a fairly high price just for adjustment (probably because of his recognition/skill vs. workload) but the other one that Fiddlesticks mentioned said to just swing it in to take a look at the position etc.

I have done some things in the interim to greatly improve the sound, thanks to MadBadDaniel on here .  I followed his thread about making a DIY Tone Rite device and all I can say is WOW, same with my teacher.  It's made the violin awaken from it's long 'Slumber' and is playing very nicely.  Still have it hooked up when I'm not playing to try and increase the effect.  I am so happy that I signed up here finally . Huge thanks to everyone for the advice and hats off to Daniel for the great project!

Steve - I haven't honestly kept an exact log of the hours I have had the device on my violin, though it would be around at least around 72-80 hours.  I left it on the violin in my studio/room non stop at close to full volume which was fairly loud when hooked up to the bridge.  When I close the door you can't really hear it much at all.  I do have acoustic treatment in this room as I do audio production/recording from here so the sound doesn't have much room to escape at all.  

The way I hooked it up was with an old speaker that I had, took a piece of manila envelope and made a cone out of it to focus the sound which is attached to the cone of the speaker with hot wood glue.  I then took a kabob skewer and cut it in half to make the 'sound post'.  That was glued with hot wood glue in to the manila cone.  Since the kabob skewer is pretty narrow I am using a wooden clothes pin to hold it in place on the bridge and seems to do the trick pretty well.  Here's a pic of the setup as it stands currently:

The speaker is hooked up to my old phone with an all classical internet radio station playing on it.  Hope this gives you a better idea of the setup.  It definitely did 'open up' more than when I first picked it up.  The sound has a very full tone to it now where as before it was very choked.  Still has a ways to go I'm sure but for now it sounds great as the experiment continues .

Steve - No problem at all, glad the info is able to help out a bit and at least from what my newbie ear can tell there is definitely a sound difference now.  I'll eventually post another sound/video clip of it now, after the 'play in' when my nerves aren't in the way and I have my next song worked out lol.

Update to the repair scenario - I took everyones advice and checked around at several of the luthiers in this area and I have to say thank you to Ken (Fiddlestix)!  Wilson Fine Violins will be my new 'hometown' luthier, he's been so helpful thus far there is no comparison to any of the others.  Shockingly one of the shops wouldn't even call me back and when I went out there he was 'too busy' to take any time to look over my violin .  All sorted now and it's actually going to be VERY cheap to get the sound post adjusted like you said Pierre.  

There are some 'seam issues' on it as well but after sending some detailed pics of these areas he was able to tell me what it would roughly cost to repair them as well.  Once again WAY below what I was thinking.  Thanks again all and here's to furthering the journey .

Here's a pic in case anyone wants to see a pretty rough open seam/separation from years of 'slumber' in a closet lol:

Woohoo!  1st series of repairs are done!  The bottom seam separation has to be done at a different time I guess as it would be too traumatic for the instrument all at once but the other separations are gone and boy, what a difference!  The luthier also moved my bridge and sound post and put new Evah Pirazzi strings on it.  It literally sounds like a whole new violin!  I can't keep my hands off of it, wanting to practice 24/7 now!  Thanks again all for the great advice/encouragement!  I'll try to put another sound clip up of the 'restored' beauty lol.

Hey Ken, this first set of repairs was actually done by my new violin teacher I just started with (had to separate from the last one due to unreliability with our time slot) who's been doing work on violins, violas and cellos for about 40 years now.  Did an outstanding job on the open seams/sound post adjustment.  He wasn't able to repair the end area and sent me out to Rob Wilson, found out why when I was there today .  Wilson's WILL be doing my next set of repairs though, new bridge (as mine is a bit high right now), new bow rehair as well as correcting a slight warp in the stick and a full cleaning/french polish on the violin.  Lets just say that the repair of the end seam/block and rib would cost more than your average professional series violin, bummed out cause I can't afford it but like he said 'It's not really broken, so no need to fix it' lol.