One of the best tweaks you can make to a room doesn’t come from an audio catalog. It might be sitting in your hallway or living room right now.
I’m talking about the bookshelf.
We get so wrapped up in foam panels, quadratic diffusers, and all the other gear-shaped solutions that we forget: a well-stocked bookshelf is one of the most effective tools for breaking up reflections in a room.
The key is irregularity. A good diffuser doesn’t just absorb sound; it scatters it—randomly, naturally. And there’s nothing more random than a bookshelf full of different sizes, shapes, and depths. Paperback novels. Tall hardcovers. CDs. Staggered spines and a bit of chaos. That’s what you want.
In The Audiophile’s Guide, I talk about the importance of controlling the first reflection points on your side walls. That’s where your ears first receive the early reflections off your speakers, and if those reflections are strong and coherent, they blur imaging and collapse your soundstage.
But if you break those reflections up—scatter them instead of absorb them—you keep the energy in the room while restoring clarity and depth. That’s exactly what a bookshelf does.
And unlike foam panels, it doesn’t get you sideways looks from you know who.
