An adaptive equalizer comprises an adjustable equalizer circuit that allows to enhance the frequency dependence of contents of the transmitted signals which suffer from losses in the connected transmission channel. A blind equalization tuning procedure is proposed that operates without knowledge about the characteristic of transmission channel. Phase positions of transitions in the equalized signal are detected. A digital post-processing circuit evaluates a measure for spread of the detected phase positions of transitions, accumulated over a plurality of the symbol periods. The digital post-processing circuit controls the adjustable equalizer, setting the adjustable equalizer to a setting wherein the detected spread is minimized.