The present invention is an echo canceller for sparse channels in an echo channel. The echo channel receives a far-end input and a near-end input. An enable generator asserts a sparse update enable in response to detecting at least one of the double talk condition and an impulse response change. A main weight updater transfers shadow weights of the shadow filter to N sets of sparse weights in N sparse filters of the main filter according to the sparse update enable. A sparse main filter filters the far-end input non-adaptively to generate a main output. A long shadow filter filters the far-end input adaptively to generate a shadow output and to estimate delays of peaks of the sparse weights in the main filter.