The problem of photoacoustic pulse generation is treated using generalized thermoelastic equations, specifically incorporating the hyperbolic heat conduction equation to avoid an infinite thermal propagation velocity. The assumption of equality of longitudinal and thermal velocities leads to a simplification of the solution in certain limiting cases, enabling insights into the character of the solution, without appreciably affecting the numerical results. The effect(s) of approximations made by previous authors may also be assessed. Numerical Hankel–Laplace transform inversion is shown to be practical for the general case, allowing such calculations to be duplicated by others.