An apparatus includes a first gain stage, a combiner and a second gain stage. The first gain stage may be configured to amplify a receive signal acquired from a circuit to generate an intermediate signal. The combiner may be configured to combine the intermediate signal with a cancellation signal to generate a combined signal. The cancellation signal is generally derived from a transmit signal a portion of which appears in the receive signal through the circuit. The second gain stage may be configured to amplify the combined signal to generate an output signal.