Avalons are good, so are Amek, great river, langevin and manley. The style of music that you record isn't the deciding factor for what mic pre (or console, mic, etc.) you need. The sound of the source is going to dictate what equipment will be the best.
To answer most of your questions (the ones I have noticed anyway) You should get 2 channels of good quality, clean (don't worry about excessive warmth or color) preamp and a good condenser mic.
Get a decent sound card and sonar or something. Do everything inside the computer. If you really want to mix it on a console, rent some studio time when you have it mostly done in the computer. The type of board you will get for $3000 isn't going to do what you need it to. But you will get 2 really, really nice mic pres for about half of that.