Yes, a great goal. Worthy of maniacal scheming and experiments! 
I think most of the noise is from microbes. The paper sleeve or cardboard cover feeds mold in summer humidity, then dry winter air makes molds spore which puts them into the grooves of the record. Bacteria will eat the molds, molds eat the dead bacteria, you have a swamp of sticky organisms that glue themselves to any surface and when they die the glue dries.
But I still have some brand new audiophile pressings that come in plastic sleeves which are still noisy on the first play. That is annoying for high priced vinyl. I wonder if it is removable dirt or a permanent defect stamped into the vinyl. My cleaning technique is not powerful enough to know whether I'm getting everything that's not vinyl off of the record.
The loupe sounds like a good idea for inspecting the grooves.
I agree - that working edge of a needle is very very small, and microbial size "stuff" can have noticeable impact...
Hence the use of enzymatic cleaners, that break down the microbes, mold, fungus enough to loosen their grip on the vinyl then allow other physical cleaning techniques to wash them away.
I think the best physical cleaning method is ultrasonic, but you can get great results with time and elbow grease using basic cleaner formulae combine with enzyme cleaners (either AIVS, or hospital detergents...)
Another interesting observation was made by Gusten on another forum (AK) he tried "Vinyl-Gloss" as a record treatment with great success (as a lubricant and anti-static) - he then noticed that after a while additional stuff was collecting under the needle - it seems the Vinyl-Gloss was gradually migrating under the "stuff" loosening it, and over time the record was actually improving as a result. (over time being around 10 record plays, no more than a couple of months)
bye for now
David
