I finally got time to A/B the LAuX and Burson Conductor 3 X Performance. The bottom line: I'm keeping the Burson and returning the LAuX. The LAuX is, in fact, liquid gold on my Focal Clear, but it is a one-trick pony. To achieve its glowing sound, it shaves off a significant amount of upper end and bumps the low end. I absolutely love how it sounds, but it has just one sound, and that sound doesn't give me everything I want (everything's a compromise, isn't it?).
When I compare it to the C3XP, I realize that the LAuX isn't giving me the full picture of what is in the music. That manifests itself most obviously with a smaller soundstage because our brains interpret longer reverb tails as indicative of larger spaces (think clapping in a cathedral vs. closet) but since the LAuX tilts the highs down so much, reverb tails drop below audibility sooner than they're supposed to, so they sound shorter, thereby shrinking the perceived size of the space the sound--and therefore you the listener--occupies. The Burson, probably like a lot of solid-state designs, doesn't do that. The C3XP tilts slightly towards the warmer side to my ears compared to completely neutral, especially after engaging the CMFR filter, but I like that. If I want an even warmer presentation, I can EQ down some of the highs or roll the op-amps. (Why not just EQ up the highs of the LAuX? My personal preference is to use EQ to cut rather than to boost because it's mathematically harder to create information where it doesn't exist than to remove information that is already there.) The C3XP is not as warm and lovely as the LAuX, but I decided that the versatility of the Burson--with its filters and op-amp rollability--as well as the complete sound spectrum and soundstage it renders, is the better long-term investment for me.