Clarence C. Moore Started Crown in Indian and he was a radio enthusiast from
an early age. He had stayed for the early part of the decade in South America and
worked for an organisation called HCJB. This was a non-profit Christian engineering
and broadcasting group.
After returning back to the US, he decided he wanted to provide Christian
broadcasters similar to HCJB with high quality electronic equipment. Subsequently,
he started the International Radio and Electronics Corporation (IREC) in 47'. Then
made what used to be a chicken coop into Crowns first premises.
In the early days their name was forged on a range of tough as well as compact
open-reel tape recorders these were designed to function dependably while being
applied by missionaries situated in often remote, unforgiving locations in the world.
Subsequently after working with existing models for the first couple of years, in
1949 he got a patent for an innovative new development, the very first tape
recorder with a power amplifier built in.
International Radio and
Electronics Corporation’ was certainly a long name and eventually Moore's wife
(and also co-founder of the company) felt a change was needed. IREC had up to this
stage produced many products that were called 'Royal' and 'Imperial' and also had
a crown emblem emblazoned on them, so it seemed a natural suggestion to call the
company 'Crown'. So in the 1960's the companies name was changed to ‘Crown International,
a division of International Radio and Electronics Corporation’. Then in the mid
70's, the name was finally changed to Crown International, Inc, after a vote by
the shareholders.
The DC300 high-powered solid-state amplifier was first produced in the sixties.
The amp gave 150W per channel at eight ohms and with the inclusion of AB+B circuitry it allowed Crown to move into a
market leading position in the power amplifier marketplace. You can still find
DC300s today in use in pro audio applications.
In the seventies, the PSA-2 Power Amplifier was launched. This amp had a
built-in computer to try to ensure the maximum performance of the output transistors.
They then began to diversify their product line by introducing new lines of microphones
and audio analyzers.
Crown was able to innovate greatly in the 1980's with the introduction of
Grounded Bridge circuitry. It allowed lower distortion, lower thermal stress, greater
acoustic output, higher reliability, far better audio quality and power density.
This development was instrumental to the eventual production of the Macro-Tech and
Micro-Tech amp lines.
In the 90's Crown produced computer-controlled audio systems with the IQ
System. In the late nineties Crown introduced the K2 amplifier. This amp included
‘Balanced Current Amplifier circuitry’ which made it extremely thermally and energy
efficient, and was considered a landmark development.
Crown was bought by Harman International in 2000, but has
continued to be a leader in innovation and design with the CT series and the next
generation of the IQ system - the IQ network as well as and the I-Tech Series touring
amplifiers. They continue to follow the philosophy of reliability and innovation
and they continue to please their customers and exceed their expectations.