Audio setup while skiing?

For me i just my phone which doubles up as a music player with the standard apple ear buds. works for me.

Ipod shuffle and some Sony earbuds that I find really comfortable. The shuffle is so small and light it never gets in the way, and they are just about indestructible

Old 1st gen ipod nano with the rubber in ear buds, just keep it on an inside chest pocket and never feel a thing as long as you give yourself enough cord slack so its not pulling

I used to use my phone, but for me my phones typically die/fail on me within a year, and some have poor battery life, or they develop it.

So for about 3 years I've owned a 16GB Sony Walkman MP3 player; it's battery can last me 2 riding days, it's fairly small (like 4th gen iPod nano size), and has a button lock slider to prevent ghosting. It's price point was it's main attraction ($110 new). So far it's held up great and does what I need it to do.

I always wear a helmet so in-ear earbuds are a must. Currently I have Shure se315s with dual drivers as I'm a bit of an audiophile. I like that they wrap around your ear so they can just hang when they're not in, but the the best part about them is that the actual earbuds are detachable. If the cord fails at any time I can simply replace it for half of the earbud's cost.

Word of advice: make sure to get earbuds with an L shaped jack rather than a straight jack. I've had many an earbud fail on me because my MP3 player typically ends up lying sideways in my pocket putting strain on the cord of a straight jack. This is probably why my Sony earbuds have lasted me 1+ years (which by the way I do recommend Sony's earbuds for good affordable earbuds).

Great insight to both the walkman and the earbuds.

Spotify on the phone is where it's at

So there's a signal on every mountain huh. News to me.

You can download your playlists with spotify premium to your mobile device, then it functions like an mp3 player! I imagine streaming entire playlists would not only be very costly but also a huge battery drain for most phones.

I understand but don't feel like paying $15 monthly to ski w/ music instead of just torrenting and playing later.

Plus, Spotify isn't available everywhere due to licensing, like my country Canada for instance.

I forgot to mention some things...

Keep your MP3 player warm or it may slow down or lose charge. On really cold days, I've noticed my songs were running slower.