Magnetic tracking systems and methods confine source(s)/sensor(s) to a compact region, thereby facilitating enhanced precision without the need for distortion compensation or mapping. Several sensors placed in accurately known (or determined through algorithms within the tracker processor) locations allow a single small magnetic field source to be tracked by all of them simultaneously. Such a configuration allows an operator's head to be tracked accurately, as in a flight simulator, where coupling between field source and sensors is kept short, thereby eliminating the need for distortion mapping.