No, in previous versions, spectrum analyzer didn't work well, ie at the rhythm of music. Now you can notice that bars move according to music, more visible when goes from top to down and vice versa.
Previously, when music was ending and sound was down, bars was up. Now, i believe that bars works better.
The hard thing to do is using wave-in device even if it were off, or use any other way to get the wave info.
Regards.