The results of the study of a gas-discharge electroacoustic transducer operating based on a pulse discharge in air at atmospheric pressure are presented. The influence of the electrode system configuration on the acoustic characteristics of the transducer is considered. It is shown that changing the discharge chamber volume and the interelectrode gap significantly affects the radiation intensity. Features that arise when using electroacoustic transducers of open and closed types for NDT tasks are identified. It is demonstrated that the open-type gas-discharge electroacoustic transducer is a sufficiently powerful broadband excitation signal source and has prospects for application in non-destructive testing. The closed-type gas-discharge electroacoustic transducer has advantages when studying materials with special requirements for surface cleanliness or the magnitude of the applied external electric field.