International Radio and Electronics Corporation (IREC) was established in 1947 by Clarence C. Moore, an Elkhart, Indiana minister.

The company started out building rugged, open reel tape recorders for use by missionaries in far off parts of the world.

[1] A fire destroyed 60% of the Crown facility on Thanksgiving Day 1971 and rendered much of the remaining building severely damaged.

[2] In 1949, Moore obtained a groundbreaking patent, the first tape recorder with a built-in power amplifier for public address duties, which was introduced in 1950.

The DC300 proved very popular with sound reinforcement system owners and moved Crown into a leadership position in terms of power amplifier sales worldwide.

[6] In November 2007, after 40 years of service, the Crown DC300 was inducted into the TEC Awards TECnology Hall of Fame in New York on the opening day of the Audio Engineering Society's 123rd convention.

George Peterson, executive editor of Mix magazine, said of the DC300 that it "was a classic that really ushered in and defined the era of the modern power amplifier.

[2] The first grounded bridge product released by Crown was the M600 amplifier (1974) primarily employed for commercial sound installations including constant voltage loudspeaker systems.

[2] In 1979, Crown introduced the PSA-2 & SA-2 power amplifiers with analog computer control of transistor performance to maximize output characteristics.

The large subwoofers, in conjunction with the electrostatic panels, provided audio response stated variously as 22-30 Hz up to 30 kHz.