To improve on power and bandwidth limitations associated with conventional feedforward equalizer (FFE) implementations, the present disclosure provides intersymbol interference (ISI) compensation circuits that do not use delay cells common to FFE structures. In one example, the compensation circuit of the present disclosure comprises a two stage amplifier. Each stage of the amplifier is implemented using a differential pair with degeneration. One of the amplifier stages has a transfer function with a zero in the left half of the s-domain, also called the s-plane, and the other amplifier has a transfer function with a zero in the right half of the s-domain. The amplifier stage with the zero in the left half of the s-domain can be used to provide post-cursor ISI compensation, and the amplifier stage with the zero in the right half of the s-domain can be used to provide pre-cursor ISI compensation.