Inner Tube really helps my system sound better

I recently was given a Kenda 12" children's bicycle inner tube by a local dealer to try under my Rega turntable. I took it home, thinking at the time it was a lot of high-end audiophile dealer hoo-ha, but when I tried it, I found that was quite an improvement in the sound of my system. When placed directly under a turntable, the improvement is better transparency and inner detail, more defined bass, improved "air" and spaciousness, and overall, a more natural presentation of the music...more "musical" as it were.

Advise on this real world format decision

I basically understand the pros/cons of non-compressed, lossy, lossless. For iTunes purposes, with just ONE household computer (iMac) serving 4 iPods of various capacities (1 g, 4g, 20g, 60g), my compromise has been ripping to 320kbps MP3. Any higher than that really compromises the library sizes as carried by the iPod users. Also concerned (rightfully?) about cross-platform usage as follows...

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