The most robust treatment of the inverse acoustic scattering problem is based on the reversion of the Born-Neumann series solution of the Lippmann-Schwinger equation. An important issue for this approach to inversion is the radius of convergence of the Born-Neumann series for Fredholm integral kernels, and especially for acoustic scattering for which the interaction depends on the square of the frequency. By contrast, it is well known that the Born-Neumann series for the Volterra integral equations in quantum scattering are absolutely convergent, independent of the strength of the coupling characterizing the interaction. The transformation of the Lippmann-Schwinger equation from a Fredholm to a Volterra structure by renormalization has been considered previously for quantum scattering calculations and electromagnetic scattering. In this paper, we employ the renormalization technique to obtain a Volterra equation framework for the inverse acoustic scattering series, proving that this series also converges absolutely in the entire complex plane of coupling constant and frequency values. The present results are for acoustic scattering in one dimension, but the method is general. The approach is illustrated by applications to two simple one-dimensional models for acoustic scattering. © 2003 The American Physical Society.