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Buy whatever type of furniture does the trick, there's no right and wrong to it, but in general terms, the more you can isolate what your kit is sitting on, the better. Many mix up isolation with coupling. Spikes couple, sorbothane or rubber isolate. Spikes are generally there to help level a piece of kit (CD players and TT's should be as level as you can get them). Sorbothane turns vibrational energy into heat energy by absorption. There are many other DIY materials you can use too to help isolate, so building an effective kit rack on a budget is easily doable. I like the IKea stuff but avoid MDF since it has terrible damping properties. Chip-board is better, ply better still.
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Well, yes and no, although materials like Sorbothane do isolate, they do not do so in an entirely linear manner (nothing does) and this can lead to the perception of increased colouration if not used in an optimal manner (which it rarely is in hi-fi applications). The matching of Sorbothane to load, relative to isolation frequency, is discussed in detail on the Sorbothane website.
By the same token, as you say, spikes generally couple rather than isolate. However, they will not couple equally at all frequencies and amplitudes.
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I would also say that It's rather a broad statement to say MDF has poor damping etc. It depends very much on what density and stiffness of grade you are looking at and what result you are looking for - do you want to maximise broad band attenuation or rapid decay, for example. There are many grades of MDF, just as there are for chipboard and ply - what may be appropriate for a specific speaker cabinet is not necessarily true for another application.
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I enquired about the weight the Lack TV bench would safely support from Ikea, and the reply I got said it was designed for a maximum of 65kgs.
So should be ok for most equipment. :)
