Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is a class of smart material whose acoustic properties can be varied rapidly and reversibly by the applied magnetic field. The MRF is proposed to be as actively sound barriers or acoustical metamaterial. This paper presents a theoretical model to study acoustic propagation in MRF under fields based on the Biot-Stoll model. The model considers the coupling interaction between ferro particle and base fluid. This paper investigated the acoustic velocity and attenuation of a commercial MRF dependence on the different parameters such as carrier fluid viscosity, permeability and intensity of magnetic field. The calculated results show that the attenuation is increased with small field strengths and independent on field strength when the magnetization begins to saturate. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.