Where can I get a decent digital stereo for my van?

• Monday, 7 April 2008
• Mike Cazalet

Somebody broke into my two-year-old Bailey and stole the stereo head unit which, foolishly, I’d left in the caravan. I’m going to fit a replacement and thought it should be a digital one because apparently it gives a much better sound quality, but I can’t find anyone who sells them. With the UK moving over to digital radio, surely somebody must sell digital car stereo-sized units.
Bill Arnold, Nottingham

Despite the couple of million household digital radio sets sold, digital hasn’t been the success everyone was predicting. In the last month, two UK digital stations closed and three shut down in Germany.

There are two major problems. Firstly, even in areas with supposedly good reception there are loads of blind spots where reception is non-existent. Secondly, in an effort to squeeze an enormous amount of information into a narrow band, the sound quality isn’t that good. True, the sound initially seems crisp and clear but after a while you’ll realise that music, for example, has little tonal depth.

Because there are no plans to get rid of the conventional AM/FM broadcast bands, experts are saying that digital radio might even be phased out. And that, I suspect, is why you haven’t found any car-sized digital units.