A method of processing magnetic resonance imaging signals from a plurality of receiver coils of a magnetic resonance imaging system, comprises the steps of receiving from said plurality of receiver coils a corresponding plurality of original signals in the time-domain forming an n-dimensional signal vector .nu..sub.k wherein n is the number of receiver coils; linearly combining said original signals so as to obtain a plurality of transformed signals forming an m-dimensional transformed signal vector .nu.'.sub.k wherein m is smaller than n and wherein said step of linearly combining is represented by a linear transformation matrix A; and reconstructing an image from said plurality of transformed signals. Said transformation matrix A is determined for given sensitivity characteristics and noise statistics of said plurality of receiver coils so as to substantially maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in a preselected image region or volume which is preferably smaller than the imaging slice or volume selected by the magnetic resonance experiment.