Ava + Shoutcast is a true joy. I use the Shoutcast feature playing in the background almost as much as I actually play games. I typically only listen to one or two stations, so the current way that it works is find by me. In fact, I was quite tickled to find out that the play button on my newly purchased DVD/Dongle remote cycles between the stations. Beautiful.
My only complaint, though, is that there is no song information! Extremely frustrating. I'd much prefer a way to display the artist/title/channel. Especially the artist/title. XBMC shows this info (even though I have yet to find a skin I like for XBMC that shows this info nicely).
The previous comment about pcm vs. AC3 is worth noting too. I'm not there yet, but eventually I'll be playing through my receiver, so the surround quality will be an issue. For now, though, the Shoutcast song and artist titles are my biggest wish for the mythical .5