There were humble beginnings for what is now an internationally respected leader in amplified sound. Crown Audio Inc. was started as the International Radio and Electronics Corporation (IREC) by an Elkhart, Indiana minister named Clarence C. Moore in 1947. Moore did not start his operations out of a garage as is the norm but he began by building open-reel tape recorders out of a chicken coop. Much progress has been made over the decades and Crown is now known for being the creators of industry leading amplifiers for all types of applications including cinema venues, installed sites, touring rigs, portable PA, as well as commercial audio. With nearly seven decades of innovating and providing extraordinary audio experiences, it’s not surprising that Crown Audio continues to raise the bar in audio amplification year after year.

The early days of IREC focused on a family of rugged, compact open-reel tape recorders built for reliability and to travel in remote, often-primitive regions of the world where missionaries operated. Several models of tape recorder followed before Moore obtained a patent in 1949 for a revolutionary invention: the world’s first tape recorder to come stock with a built-in 15-Watt power amplifier. Fifteen years later, IREC produced their first ever solid-state amplifier, the SA 20-20. These new innovations brought great success to the company and amplifiers became the focus of future business.