Yes, I can attest that jimbones' system certainly has minimal surface noise. I know that it's virtually impossible to completely eliminate; it's the nature of the beast. But when we listened to my new copy of 'Ultimate Sinatra' on vinyl, "holy shit" popped out of my mouth.
On used records, my thoughts lean toward stylus shape; maybe the shape is touching badly worn places on the record. Conversely, if your stylus is touching virgin vinyl in the grooves, untouched by previous styli, all is right with the world. I don't know...
Forgetting all that, jimbones wife served up an excellent small pizza. It magically appeared after a number of hunger inducing LP's. It was while eating said pizza that we solved all audio conundrums and found the way forward.