A magnitude only equalizer equalizes a magnitude of a received wireless signal without regard to phase distortions introduced, and transmits the magnitude equalized signal to a timing recovery loop for improved correlation peak detection in a sync based timing recovery scheme. A channel equalizer receiving the output signal from the timing recovery loop equalizes the signal and corrects any phase distortions introduced by the magnitude only equalizer. The magnitude only equalizer includes at least one filter utilizing only real coefficients and constrained such that the direct term of the overall filter structure within the magnitude only equalizer is unity.