In a method, read signals from each of a plurality of read transducers of a data head are buffered for each of a plurality of cross-track positions of the head relative to a data track. The buffered read signals are processed to establish a quality metric for each of the read signals and at least one combination read signal comprising at least two of the read signals. A data recovery cross-track position and a reader configuration comprising one or more of the read transducers are identified based on the quality metrics. A data read operation is then performed with the data head in the data recovery cross-track position using the read signals from the identified reader configuration.
