A method of wireless communication with improved performance employs an equalizer receiver with multiple receive antennas. Equalizer taps for linear filters of the equalizer receiver are generated by determining a conditioned covariance matrix of a first data path and a second data path based on a first gain (g0) of this first data path and a second gain (g1) of the second data path. The equalizer taps of the first data path and the second data path are determined based on the conditioned covariance matrix. The first data path and the second data path are then equalized using the equalizer taps. An equalized signal is generated by combining the equalized first data path with the equalized second data path.