Polk Audio UltraFit 3000

Since they won't fit everyone equally well, the Polk UltraFit 3000s will seem great to some users and not so great to others.

A pair of exercise earbuds has to do more than just muffle the sound of your labored breathing. They need to be durable and sweat-proof, they need to stay in place when jostled, and they need to sound great. Of all the pairs we've taken out running, the Polk Audio Ultrafit 3000 might be the best buds yet.

The outer walls of the Cooper Square Hotel reflect blue sky and angle gently as they rise to the penthouse suite. When construction on the hotel began, New Yorkers cried “Abomination!” at the idea of a glass-sheathed high-rise towering over the short brick buildings of the East Village. Now that the Cooper Square Hotel has integrated itself into the Bowery’s landscape, it is the ambitions of the building’s architects that are remembered, not New Yorkers’ gripes.

Polk Audio joins the list of manufacturers making sports-specific earbuds -- listening devices designed not only to withstand the sweat of your workout, but also to keep the damn things in your ears.

Sweating through a workout has its rewards, but one undeniable hindrance is when headphones continually pop out of your ears. Polk Audio's UltraFit 3000 in-ear canal phones are engineered to stay wrapped around your ears no matter how many ounces of sweat you work up.