Once you get over 250K, MP3 is fine for anything other than critical listening.
If I’m gonna sit down and LISTEN to the music while enjoying a cigar and a single malt, it means vinyl or open reel. Everything else is digital.
And MP# doesn’t compress the sound. Rather, it removes information. If the sound is compressed it is because the signal being converted to MP3 was compressed.
MP3 compresses file size, not sound. It can sound bad if you use a low enough bit rate because so much of the audible data is removed, but if the op is going 250 or higher, it will be more than fine for all but the most quiet and focused listening sessions. And for many it would be fine even for that.
My rock bottom is a low 160, but that is because that stuff is played in the car, if you get my drift. Also, once you drop below 160 you start losing audible bass frequencies. They are simply not there. As a bass player myself, that is a problem. :-)
You are correct about the MP3 method of reducing file size. It is unlistenable to me. Perhaps, I should say though, that if I had never listened to anything but MP3 it might be OK. But that’s not the case and I can’t dumb down my ears to that format.