It would be great if you had a permanent means somewhere that would tell us whether PA is engaged or not.
I understand. But sadly that is impossible because the sound engine has no user interface means.
Dave is correct. Notice though that it doesn't need real Coverart to show "Coverart", which always at least will show the "no Coverart present" picture (black screen with a large X).
I can't tell anymore about the 709 beta version. And the quicker loading of 0.9z-7-3 is because something was "slow" in the previous versions because of a bug.
Not much help, but hopefully still a little ...
Peter