Regardless of what you play through in the beginning, no harp will stand up to the kind of abuse most of us perpetrated on our harps when we began to learn. BarbequeBob Maglinte-- one of our more accomplished harpers on this board -- would jump in with a sermon here about primarily playing with too much force when you start out. It's natural to do so, and it wrecks harps. Also, it's normal to develop too much saliva in the beginning, and that's hard on reeds as well. You're probably gonna blow up harps, so ya' just decide how nice a harp yer' willing to destroy.
On the other hand, we all know that no matter what instrument you play, an instrument that feels, looks, and sounds good can be an inspiration and a motivator to you for the purpose of advancing your abilities.
Force destroys harps, and it also slows you down and makes your playing less nimble. Practicing without amplification is preferential to wailing away through an amp. If you develop the tones you want acoustically, you'll only sound better amplified. You can always hook up the gear and get your ya-ya's when you've finished a good acoustic practice session... at some point you gotta learn the gear too.
