Magnetic recording with reduced cross-talk and interchannel time displacement

A magnetic head device for recording on magnetic tape, said device comprising a rotating drum, two pairs of magnetic heads, each pair comprising a wide width head for recording high frequency information and a narrow width head for recording low frequency information, each of said pairs having a gap between the heads comprising the pair, the order of the high and low frequency heads within one of said pairs being reversed with respect to the order of the high and low frequency heads of the remaining pair, said pairs being mounted on said drum to provide that the recording tracks laid down on the tape by the low frequency heads have a guardband therebetween of the sum of the amounts by which the narrow heads differ in widths from the wide heads of the same pair respectively.