I got a new AV receiver recently and I have a problem. It's deeper than my old one and the plugs on the cables I have are too long so that they'd have to poke through the panelling in the back of my entertainment center in order for it to fit. So what should I do?

The first option I see is to buy new cables that have shorter inflexible parts, but that probably means lower-quality cables. I mean, I'm on board with the notion that the big fat cables you see these days are overpriced, but I also think that the little cheap-ass cables are probably lousy. Or am I wrong? Or does someone know of decent cables that have shorter plugs? And then there's the two S-Video cables I need. I don't know of any of them that have much shorter plugs.

Another option is to buy right-angle cables or adapters. But I can't seem to find any for sale locally. And I don't know that anyone makes right-angle S-Video cables or adapters.

Any other ideas? I really need to get them tonight. The wife's already mad that the living room is in a state of disarray.

Trim the back paneling of the entertainment center to make it fit? Unless you have a custom-built entertainment center the back panel might just be cheap paneling and this would also increase airflow.

Here are right-angle s-video cables. Probably not something available locally though. You should be able to find right-angle RCA cables at a car stereo shop.

Perhaps not timely enough, but a search on partsexpress.com for "right angle" reveals right-angle RCA adapters among others. Even TOSLink.

The beauty of bachelorhood is being able to use the Sawzall as one sees fit.

Yeah. They have right-angle RCA adapters at the RadioShack. $4 a piece, though.