A circuit for enabling an adaptation of an equalization circuit is described. The circuit comprises a continuous time linear equalizer configured to receive an input data signal and generate an equalized input data signal; a decision circuit configured to receive the equalized input data signal, wherein the decision circuit generates an estimate of the input data signal; channel estimation circuit configured to receive the estimate of the input data signal and an error signal to generate an impulse response estimate of an equivalent channel; a frequency response computation circuit configured to receive the impulse response estimate of the equivalent channel and generate a channel frequency response; and a continuous time linear equalizer control circuit configured to receive the channel frequency response and to generate a CTLE adaptation signal for controlling the continuous time linear equalizer.