Best material for inexpensive amp stands

Tvad's suggestion is great (as usual).
Another option is Bamboo cutting boards.
These come in many sizes (small to very large) and
can be found in the housewares section of major department stores and also Linen 'n Things.

i glued together 2 pieces of mdf and finished them off nicely with sanding sealer and krylon paint..

heavy brass cones for feet (you can get the screw in inserts from a woodworking shop (also of brass)

Little work on my part, but relatively nice looking and accoustically dead. You can go a little further by applying some sound deadening material to the bottom (out of sight). Something like Dynamat.

How about putting cork matting between the amp and the platform to absorb the vibrations ?

What is the floor type , wood on trusses with a basement , vinyl , carpet or cement slab ? What is the traffic situation on your street ?
A cement slab on a rocky grade beside a major busy street can receive vibrations from heavy vehicles on the street .
As can an old rickety wood structure .
Ever been near railroad tracks when a train goes by ? Ever had a record skip when you walk by the turntable ?
It all makes a difference on the way that you do things .
Instead of draining those vibrations away from the amp you could draw them to it !
Just as important as the material used for the base .

Good luck .

Cork is a selective absorber, not a broad-spectrum absorber. It operates at specific frequencies and not outside them. This is great if it happens to target the frequencies that bother your amps, not so great if not.

I have tube monoblocks on maple platforms 3 inches thick. The amps are supported by very heavy brass cones and the platforms are on Herbie's thick grungebuster pads.

The result is very good but I don't know yet if this "draining vibration" approach is the best way to go. An alternative approach would be isolation and absorption, with things like IsoNodes, Vibrapods and Herbie's IsoCups. You can find out more about these on the makers' Web sites, and more about the maple-and-brass system at Mapleshade.

I am in a Cul-de-sac with a slab floor. Not much traffic. Thanks for the butcher block suggestion. Thaks TVAD...

TVAD... Agreed

The purpose of the dynamat was to help with any resonances in the mdf.

The brass cones should couple directly to the mdf..

Might have been more helpful if i had actually said all that originally huh?

:-)

Now I am really confused. Are we more concerned with draining resonance away from the Amplifiers or should we be more concerned about isolating the amplifiers from floor vibrations from either the bass notes or that train going by?

Seems like with vinyl the concern is about 50/50, but with electronics not so much. The bamboo sounds nice, not a big fan of MDF. Maybe an old desk top from a garage sale cut in pieces would be good. You might sandwich two pieces with three 1/2 pieces of a handball, don't use racquet balls, they are two soft.

Isn't anyone working today?

sounds like a fun project.