I need to place a pair of bookshelves on an actual bookshelf. Now I'm wondering if there are any higher-end ($1-2K range) speakers designed for this. I was thinking that a front ported design would give me more flexibility, but everything I'm looking at still recommends placing the speakers on stands with x amount of inches from the rear & sides. Obviously using wall brackets poses the same problems.

So realistically, how much is a front-ported design still affected by the side & rear surfaces? Also, could I dampen those surfaces to reduce this effect? Any speaker make/model recommendations?