Alpha 3 let you use a 5 second crossfade. Alpha 5 prolly also did, but I didn't use it much because of the "enhanced stereo separation always on" bug. I guess they tweaked Alpha 7, to only allow 3 seconds? Oh well. As long as it's smooth and cosistent, it's all good.

One problem I had with both Alpha 3 and 5, is that they wouldn't crossfade OGG files. Not sure if this is related to what you're seeing, or if it's been addressed in this release.