A speech signal processing system is described for use with automatic speech recognition and hands free speech communication. A signal pre-processor module transforms an input microphone signal into corresponding speech component signals. A noise suppression module applies noise reduction to the speech component signals to generate noise reduced speech component signals. A speech reconstruction module produces corresponding synthesized speech component signals for distorted speech component signals. A signal combination block adaptively combines the noise reduced speech component signals and the synthesized speech component signals based on signal to noise conditions to generate enhanced speech component signals for automatic speech recognition and hands free speech communication.