Thanks for the input! I sat in on a couple image optimization sessions at Google I/O. It's past time I whipped out the notes and got to work!
fwiw, this is currently my favourite site to check for possible optimizations, I ran the test so you wouldn't have to wait 30 seconds in the queue ^_^ http://yellowlab.tools/result/e7v314ikq3
Thanks mate! Much appreciated! That's a really cool and useful site.