I've been really impressed with the hardness and nonscratchability of BR-111 hardwoods. (Looking at the Armagnac Angelim and a similar tone in the handscraped variety.) They would likely have something along the lines of what you're looking for in a 3/4" hardwood or in an engineered. I was also impressed with some Anderson Floors wood samples I saw though they specialize less in exotics. I've definitely developed brand preference for those two companies. (The BR-111 had very little scratching and the maple from Anderson had reasonably little scratching - that has some special Anderson anti-scuff coating. In my book, the scratchability issue is a big one that people often overlook. Scratches can show up easily on darker woods or woods without a ton of grain.)

The hard part with many of the tropical woods, for my tastes, was the extreme color variation between boards. I'd love a sort of tiger-stripe look in the right application, but only if all boards were kind of uniform in their base color and stripeyness. If you are looking to save money, Lumber Liquidators has some pretty tropical woods as well, and some engineered ones too. I really loved the Bahia Barra jatoba, which was an engineered at $3.99 a square foot. (Just a uniform dark brown with 'hand'-scraped top. Although in pics I've seen it's looked a bit matte and one could argue that the handscraping is not subtle. Still it was the LEAST scratchable of all woods I've seen.)

One more thing ... if you like the stripey tigerwood look and have any kind of modern vibe going on in your place... even if it's for the laundry room check out what Ikea has out... a faux tigerwood glossy hang-on-the-wall shallow cabinet set. I am not an Ikea fan but it was just beautiful and looked well-made. (It's clearly manmade materials and meant to look that way. It made me want to find a place for it in my house ... alas short of a laundry room it doesn't fit into our look.)

We fell in love with the Tigerwood. I was glad I read up on it because when we received the boxes it was very yellow, but now look at it...

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Here is newly installed one to compare with in the link below. Tigerwood/Brazilian Koa does go through the color changes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Newly installed Tigerwood/ Brazilian Koa

Yes tigerwood is a good choice its so beautiful.....