Good question. I agree that flexibity is huge in a first amp, as your tastes will surely change in gear, so it is best to have a basic amp/preamp setup that can drive most speakers. I am a huge Tube guy now, but I would suggest a solid state integrated for your purposes.
I did this very thing when I set up my first "real system" -- I messed with various Rotel, Adcom and NAD (mainly used) SS amps and integrateds. My first decent amp was an NAD 320BEE which is outstanding-- it sounds pretty darn good, is quiet, reliable, cheap, has a remote and tone controls, plays well with others, and can drive most anything. Its musicality is not a little better, its a quantum leap above any (more expensive) mass market receiver or home theater stuff.
I still have the NAD. I will never sell it. It's an integrated, BUT has separable pre and power amp sections,
I use it for a second kids' system; AND I can use it as a backup when my tube amp and OR preamp are getting fixed, or for sale, getting upgraded, etc.(which is often). (Kind of like having an old pickup truck.) Also, you can experiment with the NAD pre/power in jacks, trying out or upgrading with maybe a tube preamp, different pre-power amp combos, etc... (flexible, as you said).
After buying it, I later wished the NAD had a preamp out so I could have used it with a subwoofer, or tried biamping, however. Still, the 320BEE is my single greatest audio purchase, (and the cheapest).
I think you are on the right track. I would humbly suggest getting a good SS "starter" amp; good small speakers like the ones you mentioned, and then make your next upgrade a decent CD player or DAC for your computer, preferably Tubed. Only AFTER getting a complete starter system set up in my room, did I start to find out what kind of equipment sounded good to me in that room.
Once I had some listening tools in my own home (starter system), I learned that I liked metal dome tweeters over silk, Mosfets over BiPolar, Tubes over solid state and op amps, copper over silver, low power over high power, etc. Everyone is different. Audio is like martial arts, you work up one belt at a time to the black belt as you grow in wisdom and self-control (to 3w per channel SET, and a flowing white beard.)
I believe that you cannot figure out at all how anything sounds-- even in a store demonstration, or especially from a magazine review-- until it's in your own listening room, unfortunately. As I was broke, clueless, and cheap, I adopted the strategy to buy and sell cheap, well-made, popular Used gear until I educated myself. I found that I could sell my used stuff for near what it cost me used; and get to play with it for free basically. Building a kick ass $1,500 audio system is very rewarding, a lot more so than spending big cash on better gear. Getting your first good audiophile system is like drilling for oil I suppose, and that big gusher finally comes out!
I am not trying to sell you on NAD by any means. I just am familiar with it. Rotel makes an integrated which sounds good, and looks good, and has preamp outs, and tone controls. Parasound is good, also Adcom, etc. If budget permits, there is a Jolida hybrid integrated which is probably vastly superior (yet more minimalist) with its tube front end.
You didn't mention your busget, but if you want to spend more, why trade up a Hyundai for a Kia? I would spend a LOT more and get a used (one of the newer newer series) McIntosh SS integrated, called I believe the 6850- 6500 series. Man its great with B&W spakers. And talk about flexible! And beautiful, with killer resale value to boot).
That's not necessary however. (I guess none of this hifi stuff is really 'Necessary'....) My 50 watt NAD will drive my giant Revel 3 way towers easily, as has more bass than my old Classe behemoth amp. In your position, I would probably buy something pretty cheap; and work on the source component next. When I first tried to go from crummy stereo to decent high end sound, I found that I had to lift each of the elements of my system up to a MINIMUM HIFI level to start making music (If the "weak link" was crappy, it ruined the ENTIRE system.) (Thus "system").
For example, my starter system was a used Rotel amp and preamp, Paradigm bookshelf speakers, decent stands, and MIT cables. For CD I used an older Pioneer player which I thought sounded good (and was the "best" part of my system) as it was heavy and expensive in its day. (besides, how could I live without "shuffle"?). But my new system sounded much worse than my burnt up dorm room 70's stuff! Only when I desperately took a flyer on a mail order audiophile Cambridge CD player, (with decent parts quality) and thus brought up the weak link in my system, did I realize how important fixing the bad link was.
It's like having a leaking pipe flooding your house, you can't just say: "well the rest of the pipe is all upgraded 6 nines continuous cast cyrogenetic treated copper that cost a fortune, so it will make up for the leaky section." Plug that leak!
Moral: So I got finally a cheap but decent CD, integrated, and speakers, and I was in heaven. (for a while).
Whoa --this post is getting out of hand. I realize this is too much information. I am not really trying to give you advice, just sharing my experiences. Good luck!
