jacket_fan,

I did my system as a built-in and love it. My shelves are 24" deep as well. The one thing I would do differently is to allow better rear access. Currently, I have to go under the cabinet and up around the back to work with wiring and I didn't allow a huge amount of room to work back there. To me, that's the biggest area for improvement.

You also might want to consider cooling. I made my shelves no less than 2" higher than the equipment. It seems fine for the receiver and amp, but my cable box (of all things) gets blisteringly hot.

Good luck.

S.