Flexible audio configuration tools

[szatox]

I've got a laptop, a dock, and a headset.
This means, that my hardware configuration will change very often. And I want audio to be routed to the "right" device.
E.g. Headset, if attached, then display's speakers if dock is attached, then builtin speakers.
Possibly making exceptions for some programs and routing their output to speakers even if headset is plugged in.

What tools can I use to configure things in a quick and easy way? Probably using GUI. It's not a hard requirement, but I don't want to edit config files 5 times a day. I'm not a fan of pulseaudio (but I may consider it if there are no other options).
JACK looks somewhat promising at the first glance, but I'd need a few tips to get started, so please share if you can.
Any other options are also very welcome.

Hints?

[szatox]

After some trial and error I got sound to work with JACK connected to ALSA in plugin mode using Cadence. (And also added some acpi scripts that handle brightness and volume control hotkeys.)
So, yeah, it does look promising, but I'd like JACK to be always active rather than wait for me to launch Cadence and klick the "start" button, even though the checkbox for "start JACK on login" is already checked.

Haven't noticed any changes in my user's process list after starting jack either, so I'm not quite sure what happens once I click it. My best guess right now is that jack's dbus service merely toggles active flag within its internal state.

Tips and tricks?
I'm using LXDE, so gnome's and kde's fancy stuff is not there by default

[szatox]

Making some progress, adding "jack_control start" to bashrc solved one issue with sound device being unavailable after login.
Time for the tricky part:
I want to have more output channels available than just 2 (headphones/builtin speakers).
I have builtin analog audio device, a bunch of builtin HDMI devices, and dock's USB analog audio device.
There is also a DP in my dock, which I attached external display with, but couldn't find DP audio device. Anyone has any experience with sending audio over DP? Is it likely to be named HDMI in my system, or simply not supported?

So I'd like to have them visible as additional channels (bonus points if I could name them) I can route audio to.
And I 'd love to have some "profiles" or "presets" I could switch to with one click (or maybe with one command, so I can wrap it in some scripts)

I've noticed that plugging headphones in/out sends ACPI event, I'll check if there are events for dock as well. Not very important right now, but may come in handy later.
As always, hints are welcome.