Thanks for the new version! Differences in placeholder behavior noted just FYI:
In 1.74, when MB is first launched in either Radio or Music screens, the placeholder is not loaded at all until a Radio stream is played;
In 1.8, when MB is first launched in either Radio or Music screens, the placeholder is immediately loaded in both before anything is played, being replaced by the spectrogram when a Music file begins to be played.
This is noted just in case it helps diagnose something in the future. The new behavior is perfectly fine, as a matter of fact I prefer it.
Good luck with the future re-write and the Spek integration! And thanks again for not giving up.