In a helical scanning tape system including a magnetoresistive head; and a magnetic recording medium having a magnetic layer formed by oblique evaporation on a long nonmagnetic support, a signal being read with the magnetoresistive head by helical scanning, the track width of the magnetoresistive head is 0.5 to 0.8 .mu.m, the distance between shields is 0.13 to 0.145 .mu.m, and sensitivity is 1,862 .mu.Vp-p or more.