Transducers used for the excitation and/or detection of acoustic waves in laboratory plasmas must be compact and dimensionally compatible with the structure that contains the plasma; and, they must be made of materials that do not outgas in high‐vacuum environments, and are capable of withstanding temperatures of 500°C. This paper considers such requirements and establishes the important acoustic and constructional specifications for transducers that are housed in long, cylindrical glass discharge tubes with diameters of approximately212in. After pointing out the limitations of conventional designs, details of satisfactory moving‐armature and solid dielectric‐type transducers are presented, along with brief descriptions of their measured performance. Although the moving‐armature refit has had the greatest use to date, the solid dielectric version promises to be quite useful as a microphone in detecting plasma sound waves. Therefore, an explanation of techniques for building such a device is included, with particular emphasis on methods for coating the stationary electrode with a dielectric material.