I think I want a Quad Cortex...

[mbenigni]

I think people are used to these incredible performing devices nowadays in terms of noise.

Yep. I've always suspected that modeling preamps were playing noise reduction games to achieve low noise with crazy high gain, and I think Orv's observations about FAS' boost/pad hit the nail on the head. I'd guess a lot of digital products have similar designs/ algorithms that aren't exposed to the user in any way.