Mitigation of mr read head distortion

Mitigation of distortion of read signals from magneto-resistive read head(s) are provided in various embodiments of the present invention. In one embodiment, the read signals provided to a read channel having an analog to digital converter and digital equalizer. Digital peak measurement apparatus is configured to sense the output of the digital equalizer, and provide average positive peak values and average negative peak values of the output. Control apparatus is configured to respond to the peak values, to iteratively determine asymmetry of the peak values and estimate the cancellation slope of the asymmetry and cancellation term relationship; from the measured asymmetry and estimated cancellation slope, to iteratively estimate the convergence cancellation term; and to feed back the convergence cancellation term to modify the digital read signals for the input of the digital equalizer to iteratively converge the asymmetry to substantially zero.