The shorter shelves will certainly make it easier to connect your components. I knew my cabinet was going to be pretty open from the front (see my last pic above) so I routed all my cables along the back. Like Grimster I segregated power cords and signal cables to avoid any hum issues. I got frustrated with cable management and ended up making most of my own cables to reduce the amount of spaghetti behind my gear. I'll post a pic of the back of my cabinet later tonight.