In accordance with one embodiment, a computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code that is readable and/or executable by a processor to: receive a signal including precoded data read from a magnetic tape medium and pass the signal through a soft detector to calculator first soft information about each bit of the signal and to provide adaptive compensation for the precoded data, send the first soft information to a soft decoder, pass the signal through the soft decoder to calculate second soft information about each bit the signal, and send the second soft information to the soft detector, wherein the precoded data is passed through at least one precoder prior to being written to the magnetic tape medium via a precoder that applies 1/(1⊕D2) to bits of data, where D is delay corresponding to bit duration