FM radio quality reception

I know a lot if us(myself included) tend to romanticize the golden era of FM which would be the late 70s and like it or not the birth of AOR...I had a modest Sansui receiver, Dual TT, Advent set up...and as I recall...the sound was acceptable but not spectacular...flash forward...to today...and even with an equally modest office system...I find the FM quality to be far superior than my youth...virtually noise free, nice separation, etc...even when most current tuners are an afterthought....now granted...I have an 80s era Denon dedicated tuner that might have something to do with it...or is the hybrid digital/analogue signal ? Or am I nuts?( don't answer ....haha)