Don't worry about the cable, because it gets lots of other cables out of
the way.  Besides the footprint is only the size of the control head.Their
is one unforgivable thing, however.  That is the Mike still goes in to the
radio rather than the control head.  The menus talk more thoroughly than
any other radio, even the S meter.  I was going to get a ts-2000, but the
price of a ts-480 plus the price of a new tmv71 is still less than a
ts-2000.  And you don't tie up a radio for one set of bands.  The ts-480
pluged in to an external speaker is the best broadcast band radio in the
house.  If you do CW get the CW filter, as well as the speech board.  with
the audio DSP, the 500 HZ filter is plenty.  It's real hot, from six meters
on down.
The knotch filter is great as well.  Their are separate RIT controls for
receive and transmit, with a button that turns them off, so you always can
get both modes back to zero.  The keyer wait needs to be adjusted if you
send over 25 WPM, but that is on a menu to.