Would a real butcher block be going to far?

I have not gone to the extreme that you asked about above but I think it's an interesting idea as long as you have the ability to cut, plane, sand, and finish the raw maple to the desired size you want. Honestly, I don't know if you will notice a difference within your music. I own 2" and 4" thick maple blocks from Butcher Block and Maple Shade (a rack and several individual blocks) and I do not notice a difference in sound.

You used th word "better".  Are you after better sound?  Are you trying to isolate your equipment from the floor and vibrations or couple them?  Just putting a butcher block under them will raise the natural frequency of the system so you might avoid low frequency resonances--but you probably don't have them anyway. 

If you want to isolate, then spring platforms are the way to go.

If you're after a look, then beautiful old (refinished) butcher blocks should be great.

Jerry

If you are going to be cutting on it then yes, you want end grain

Otherwise, no.

Also, end grain never really gets clean of the meat products. It has to be re planed.

I should also point out, very few of us have the space for an old-world butcher block.

As you point out they are super thick, so the make nice side tables, and conversation pieces but where do you put your gear??  A rack, like those from Butcher Block Acoustics, has at least 2 shelves. 

Well, there is the ’cool’ factor of a vintage butcher block counter. And enjoyment of recycling.

I had 2 fairly long hard maple counters maybe 8" thick I brought from Brooklyn in 1970. Carried them place to place, never used them, sold at a garage sale for next to nothing.

Do you know a local woodworker who can plane it both sides to a new flat and parallel surface? Edges: some have concealed dowels, some visible dowels, (exposed originally or exposed by cutting the width (take woodworker’s advice) also ’cool’ looking.

A really thick one, overkill, could be cut to two (or 3) less thick slabs by a shop, used/joined various ways.

I have a counter in my office, made from Hard Maple: Sandwich Boards, 2" thick, only 10" wide, so I had my woodworker join them edge to edge, thus 6’ x 20" x 1-3/4 thick (after the plane removed the knife cuts).  They were from the JP Stevens Cafeteria which I designed when I was a youngster, salvaged when they merged with West Point Pepperell, a bit of nostalgia involved.