A speech communication system provides a speech encoder that generates a set of coded parameters representative of the desired speech signal characteristics. The speech communication system also provides a speech decoder that receives the set of coded parameters to generate reconstructed speech. The speech decoder includes an equalizer that computes a matching set of parameters from the reconstructed speech generated by the speech decoder, undoes the set of characteristics corresponding to the computed set of parameters, and imposes the set of characteristics corresponding to the coded set of parameters, thereby producing equalized reconstructed speech.