A magnetic recording system includes an array of analog inputs operable to receive an array of analog signals retrieved from a magnetic storage medium, where one of the array of analog signals corresponds with a reference channel, a timing recovery circuit operable to generate a clock signal based on the analog signal for the reference channel, a number of analog to digital converters each operable to sample one of the array of analog signals based on the clock signal to yield a number of digital channels, and a joint equalizer operable to filter the digital channels to yield an equalized output.