Magnetic tape unit for recording/reproducing signal

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To store a large quantity of voice signal at high bit rate by performing helical scanning through a matrix head and recording a digital signal representative of a compressed data. SOLUTION: An input signal from the digital output of a CD player or the like is compressed in an encoder EN by MPEG method, for example, and then error coding is performed in a block ECC while the data is multiplexed in a recorder ME. The signal is then delivered through a head driver D to a recording matrix head. During reproducing, parallel track of a tape is scanned by means of a core head RH. A signal taken out from the clock signal of a CCD array is converted into a data record signal compressed through A/D conversion at block AP, digital signal processing at blocks DP, Me and error correction and multiplexing/separation at block ECC and ME. A decoding circuit DE recovers the original input data stream from the record signal.