Yes I've seen the colors and no I have not been able to find a source to actually buy samples. Not sure why they won't let people buy samples. Its not that the Swanstone looks bad, it just isn't that 'exciting' for lack of a better word. I stopped into another HD tonight and the lady there was very interested in what I told her about the Ciencia. She is going to contact there American Standard rep to get some info and hopefully some samples.

Here's what Onyx pans are made of (from website): Here is a little information on our chemistry: 63% of our products is a hydrate crystal--Al2O3+3H2O. Alumina is also the main ingredient in Corian© and all "solid surface" products. The main ingredient in our product (alumina trihydrate) is in roofing materials and the plastics inside automobiles to slow flame spread and as a smoke retardant. It is in the plastic coating on the wiring in your home (in a much smaller percentage). Our other 37% is a special polyester resin we developed over the last 22 years (and continue to improve) to get the properties which allow us to say "Yes, Guaranteed Forever". We all try to get properties which make our products work best for our applications. Our application is the bathroom. We believe our resin serves this purpose well. Corian© uses acrylic resin, others use various blends of polyesters or modified acrylics. We prefer our resin for our products and it serves us well. We use cultured marble type molds to cast our products. The solid surface industry casts sheet goods and fabricates their products. The cultured marble industry uses calcium carbonate as their main ingredient. Our Gloss finish does have a gelcoat on the surface (about 15 mils) similar to cultured marble. Our Gelcoat is ISO-NPG. ISO-NPG gelcoat is a tight molecule--very resistant to water penetration. Our Matte finish does not have gelcoat on the surface. We use a different blend of resin for Matte. Our products are real hybrids. The resin in the matte finish--we substitute 30% of the normal ortho resin with ISO-NPG resin. This increases the ability of the product to resist moisture penetration. This is necessary without the ISO-NPG gelcoat coat which is on our gloss products. And here's the link to Onyx's standard sizes. Here is a link that might be useful: Onyx shower bases

I would suggest you look at some threads here about Solid Surface showers. I am not a pro, but I recently had a solid surface shower installed, after researching them for several years. [Kohler Choreograph?[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/kohler-choreograph-dsvw-vd~3420698?n=216) [Cultured Marble vs Onyx Collectin vs Solid Surface shower pan[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-do-you-feel-about-solid-surface-corian-shower-walls-vs-tile-dsvw-vd~3527109?n=47) [How-do-you-feel-about-solid-surface-corian-shower-walls-vs-tile?[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-do-you-feel-about-solid-surface-corian-shower-walls-vs-tile-dsvw-vd~3527109?n=47)

You need a water filtration system. As annoying as iron stains are to try to clean, the deposits are far worse on the interior of your pipes and water heater.