Abstract: The invention relates to a method and system for determining a parameter representing an acoustic property of a material. The method comprises: generating an acoustic pressure wave in said material originating from a localized position; placing a plurality of acoustic receivers (6, 7) at mutually differing distances from the acoustic source (3); transforming a plurality of measured acoustic signals to represent field values in a common computational point; computing a signal representing a measure of overlap between said transformed plurality of acoustic signals as a function of said numerical estimates of said acoustic property parameter and deriving said acoustic property parameter from said overlap signal. Since the invention uses acoustic sources that are well localized in the material, the velocity calculations are simple and the geometry of the acoustic receivers in relation to the acoustic source can be exactly taken into account.