Two modifications are proposed for an optical heterodyne method of measuring the velocity and absorption of ultrasound in crystals, which permit the determination of both the local and also the integrated acoustic characteristics of crystals. The accuracy in determining the local phase velocity and absorption in a method using phase and amplitude comparison of a pulsed heterodyne signal with a standard reference voltage is 0. 01 and approximately 1%, respectively. The optical heterodyne version of the pulse phase method permits determination of the integrated acoustic characteristics of crystals to the same accuracy at a frequency on the order of 10 MHz.