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In this paper the propagation of acoustic plane waves in turbulent, fully developed flow is studied by means of an experimental investigation carried out in a straight, smooth-walled duct. The presence of a coherent perturbation, such as an acoustic wave in a turbulent confined flow, generates the oscillation of the wall shear stress. In this circumstance a shear wave is excited and superimposed on the sound wave. The turbulent shear stress is modulated by the shear wave and the wall shear stress is strongly affected by the turbulence. From the experimental point of view, it results in a measured damping strictly connected to the ratio between the thickness of the acoustic sublayer, which is frequency dependent, and the thickness of the viscous sublayer of the turbulent mean flow, the last one being dependent on the Mach number. By reducing the turbulence, the viscous sublayer thickness increases and the wave propagation is mainly dominated by convective effects.