The dispersion relation is derived for the coherent waves in fluid or elastic media supporting viscous and thermal effects and containing randomly distributed spherical scatterers. The formula obtained is the generalization of Lloyd and Berry’s [Proc. Phys. Soc. London 91, 678–688 (1967)], the latter being limited to fluid host media, and it is the three-dimensional counterpart of that derived by Conoir and Norris [Wave Motion 47, 183–197 (2010)] for cylindrical scatterers in an elastic host medium.