A macroscopic model of the response of magnetostrictive delay lines (MDLs) under pulsed current excitation Ie is presented. The basic principles of the MDL operation are outlined and the relevant considerations of the control parameters are discussed. It is shown that the peak value of the voltage response is proportional to the derivative of the magnetostriction λ versus field H. The analytic expression derived for dλ/dH involves two identification parameters, c and A0. Parameter c has field dimensions and is a function of material parameters as described by the energetic model (EM) and proportional to the effective anisotropy field as predicted by EM, and A0 is a normalization constant, related to Ic and saturation magnetostriction λs. Preliminary results are presented comparing theoretical curves with experimental data on a Fe78Si7B15 amorphous ribbon sample with sufficient agreement.