Yes, if I had a dedicated HT room I would keep everything exposed for better tweaking and playing... but my girlfriend would have a heart attack in our current 1br apartment! Sounds like I can pretty much go with any of the 12g flat variety with no worries. I also have a puppy that seems magnetically drawn to wires, the cute bastard.

M60x2, VP150, M22x2
Sennheiser HD-595
Onkyo TX-SR507, PS3 (40gb)