A storage system includes a magnetic storage medium, a magnetic write head, a channel circuit and a preamplifier. The channel circuit includes a write data input, a differentiated edge emphasis signal generator, a write data output and a differentiated edge emphasis signal output. The preamplifier includes a write data input configured to receive write data from the channel circuit write data output, an edge emphasis signal input configured to receive a differentiated edge emphasis signal from the channel circuit differentiated edge emphasis signal output, and a write current edge emphasis controller configured to generate a write current to the magnetic write head based at least in part on the write data and on the differentiated edge emphasis signal.