A magnetic recording system includes an array of analog inputs operable to receive analog signals retrieved from a magnetic storage medium, a quadrature amplitude modulator operable to combine the analog signals to yield a quadrature amplitude modulated signal, a quadrature amplitude demodulator operable to yield a plurality of demodulated signals from the quadrature amplitude modulated signal corresponding to each channel of the array, and a joint equalizer operable to filter the plurality of demodulated signals to yield an equalized output.