Hi mls, I have a fairly new Takamine EG15SC steel string acoustic/electric. I bought it because it sounded the best to me when I played lots of others in the store. It isn't my first guitar and it was not 'cheap' but it was 'affordable' for me with a stretch. My first guitar was a bottom of the line Yamaha nylon string 'classical' which sounds just fine and which I still play just as much as the steel string.
I'm sure that if you buy one that sounds good to your ears and is what you can afford, it won't matter which one it is because you will just start playing - and then the fun really starts! Good luck.
One good thing about music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain - Bob Marley