A computer program product, according to one embodiment, includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to perform a method that includes reading data from a magnetic data storage medium. The processing circuit uses a tracking threshold module to detect and track positive peak amplitudes and negative peak amplitudes of a readback waveform during the data reading. Asymmetry compensation is performed on the data based on input from the tracking threshold module. The asymmetry compensation does not rely on an input except from the tracking threshold module in order to perform the asymmetry compensation.