A method for equalizing a received signal is provided. The signal is filtered and transmitted over a channel using an encoding scheme, where the encoding scheme has transmit symbols. This transmitted signal is then shaped such that the filtering and equalization adjust a set of taps in an equalization window so that the taps from the set are substantially equal to one another. Inter-symbol interference is then compensated for in the equalized signal using a speculative DFE with significantly reduced comparator levels.