A method and apparatus for frequency domain equalization. The method and apparatus are particularly well suited for use in a receiver in a multicarrier transmission system that has predetermined symbols periodically embedded in the transmissions, such as in an ADSL system. The equalizer apparatus includes a digital filter having a plurality of single-tap filters. The filters operate on the symbols in the frequency domain, accepting frequency domain representations of the received symbols. The equalizer also includes a reference symbol generator that provides reference symbols, a coefficient generator that accepts the equalized frequency domain symbols from the digital filter and the reference symbols and updates the filter taps using a received predetermined symbol and the reference symbol. The coefficient generator includes a generator filter having a first and a second adaptation increment, an error generator, and a threshold detector that controls the coefficient generator in response to said error signal. Preferably, the threshold detector determines whether the equalizer output would have been decoded improperly during a synchronization symbol, and if so, enables the use of the second update increment in the generator filter.