@aramsichord , I have a similar complaint and as such have made the change in main.py to play a wav file of a beep when it begins recording for the STT engine.
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mycroft_core-1484348707-py2.7.egg/mycroft/client/speech/main.py
added this import line:
from mycroft.util import play_wav
and this line in function handle_record_begin():
play_wav("/home/pi/beep-3.wav")
works great.