It's just the power. Doubt much difference in "warmth" I have the MCA50, and Paradigm S8--If you go with a solid state amp, your warmth will probably come mainly from your source and possibly the pre-section. That said, my system seems warm to me either with either my Cary CDP or vinyl. I wouldn't want it to sound any warmer, anyway. There those that say that all solid state amps sound the same if properly designed and have ample power for the load they are being asked to push. I'm closer to that camp than any other, without a large amount of data to go on.
I have seen pretty good MCA buys used here on Audiogon.
