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There is one interesting difference for bookshelves…

Posted by David Aiken (A) on January 25, 2006 at 13:54:01

In Reply to: Record & CD shelving in listening room: built into walls, or not? posted by Jeff P. on January 25, 2006 at 09:02:50:

One tends to push books back as far as they will go on the shelf. With built-in shelves, that's right up against the wall.

With freestanding shelves it's not as simple. If there is a back to the shelves, the tendency is to push them up against that. If there's no back we always end up with a space between the back of the book and the wall.

That space is the difference. Despite what most people say about books as diffusors, I find the largest benefit for me is in absorption and that is affected by surface area. Books that are pushed up hard against the wall or the back of the bookcase have less exposed absorptive surface area than books which aren't, and the difference is audible. My bookcases are freestanding with backs and are placed along my left side wall. I 'fine tune' the absorption at the first reflection point by pulling books forward away from the bookcase back in that area.

I tend to prefer freestanding bookcases because they can be moved to where they will have the best effect if you rearrange gear, and they can move with you if you shift house which is not a small thing if you have over 10 square metres (wall space coverage measurement) of bookcases. I would prefer to have open backed bookcases but couldn't find any I like.

My recommendation is to consider free-standing vs built ins based on things like the bookcase area you need and your likelihood of moving while considering how the books get placed on the shelves (back against the wall/back of the shelves or 'free standing' with open space behind them) in terms of acoustic impact.

Books definitely aren't as good as acoustic panels for absorption but they can do a quite reasonable job while not causing WAF problems related to appearance and I find the 8 square metres of wall space I covered with bookcases in my listening room to be very beneficial.

David Aiken

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