Browsing for new threads

Is there a better way to browse for new threads other than the new topic fire hose? I would like something similar to the Top Topics menu, however that one just keeps showing me the same old threads. And the New Topic Firehose misses things in between their new status and high enough flag count to make it into the Top Topics qualification.

Is there a happy medium? Or a way to nix items from the list per my own customization?

I'm also not getting what I want from Active Topics.

I guess what I would like would be a duel list page - the left being a list of all new threads in order of date and the right being all new threads sorted by popularity. And I would like to be able to remove any threads, permanently, from these lists (removing a thread from one list should remove it from the other automatically, as they're just two sort columns). I wouldn't need any threads to which I'm subscribed in this list, either.

I'm having a hard time just perusing for profound material that isn't already in the Top Topics list.

I don't know if this will be helpful to you, but I make frequent use of "Recent Posts" followed by "New Topics." I have also customized "My ATS" to follow several groups I'm most interested in. I rarely use "Forums" or "Top Topics" at all.