Unfortunately I do not have a before photo to show of the monstrosity that was torn out by my father-in-law. It was a cedar lined cabinet about knee high with 3 doors on the top surface that opened upwards. You couldn't sit there as the door handles crammed up your ....
So I decided that this was the best space in the house and in a nice walk-out basement set-up so if I was going to use this spot then it had to accommodate both 2 channel and home theater. So out goes the use of my nice Adona racks and 3 inch maple shelves. Out goes the ability to use cable lifts and other tweaks.
Since this is the only space to have electronics in this "small to me" house I decided to put the HT gear on the left side and the 2 channel on the right side. They would each be using the dedicated 20 amp circuit.
As I progressed I was constrained with the existing depth which was 24 inches but I worked the unit up higher to handle all the essentials. Thing is that the heavy amps make sense on the bottom shelf but then I could not reach in behind them to turn them on so opted for the top shelf and made the top surface 3 removable pieces. Each piece sits on felt pads so they won't vibrate. I made the shelves 19 inches deep and left myself 5 inches of open space behind to run the cables side to side. This made life much easier to string the cables. I just painted the back of the space black and you hardly notice any wires inside.
