1. A data processing circuit, the circuit comprising: a data detector circuit operable to apply a data detection algorithm to a series of symbols to yield a detected output, wherein the detected output includes a series of soft decision data corresponding to non-binary symbols; a biasing circuit operable apply a bias to each of the series of soft decision data to yield a series of biased soft decision data; and a data decoder circuit operable to apply a data decoding algorithm to the series of biased soft decision data corresponding to the non-binary symbols.