The present invention relates to magnetic resonance imaging system and to a direct digital receiver (18) for an RF coil (D.sub.1, D.sub.2), in particular of a magnetic resonance imaging system. To obtain that the sampling frequency of an analog-to-digital converter (33) of the digital receiver can be chosen independently of the digital operating frequency at which the subsequent digital down converter (38), which particularly includes a demodulator (34), operates, a resampling unit (37) is introduced which is coupled between said analog-to-digital converter and said digital down converter for resampling a first digital sample signal at said sampling frequency to a second digital sample signal at said digital operating frequency.