quartz as shelving

Quartz and other hard surfaces will not drain unwanted energy from your equipment. The better equipment stands use wood like the stand Zargon uses. Check the photos of his system.

Rrog is being overly dogmatic. Unity Audio made some very high quality speakers using Corian (not quartz, but similar). If it worked as a speaker cabinet material it can probably work as an equipment shelf. There are several different brands of quartz-like countertop. Some may be quartz all the way thru and some may be a layer of quartz bounded to a substrate. I think the later may work better as a shelf material, but I'm purely speculating. Countertop installers are probably the best source of practical info. Try it an tell us the results.

Onhwy61 is in fact speculating. Unity Audio speakers like my Green Mountain speakers use a synthetic marble to eliminate cabinet resonance. This has nothing to do with placing your equipment on a rock hard surface that will make your system sound bright and glaring.

Uru975, Notice the photos of Onhwy61's systems. His equipment is on wood. There is a good reason for that. Stereo equipment on wood is known to give the best sound.

marble, granite, glass and your quartz countertop are kryptonite to your stereo equipment

Yet you have speakers made from synthetic marble! What am I not getting?

Stereo equipment on wood is known to give the best sound.

If this is such a well known "fact", then how come HRS, Sistrum, Arcici and Gran Prix (4 very well regarded stand manufacturers) don't use wood platforms?

Rather than talk in absolutes and make hyperbolic statements all I'm suggesting is give the quartz material a try and let us know how it works. I freely admit, again, that I'm speculating that it might work well.

(As a personal note, I do use maple boards under some of my equipment. I also use carbon fiber, MDF and acrylic. At one point I used 1" thick glass which when combined with rubber/cork mats worked well. I then switched to a Mapleshade wood/metal stand which was a definite improvement. I'm now seriously considering taking out all the maple boards and switching entirely to acrylic, except for the one carbon fiber piece.)