Features:
I'll give you a quick background into Ultimate Ears, as quoted from their Company Background page on their website:

"Jerry Harvey was traveling as a sound engineer with multi-platinum rock band Van Halen in 1995 when drummer Alex Van Halen complained that the earpiece he was using to hear himself and his bandmates on stage wasn’t worth the price of one of his drumsticks. Several months later, Harvey and his then-wife Mindy went into business under the name “Ultimate Ears” with a deluxe in-ear monitor featuring special two-driver engineering for better sound reproduction plus custom fabrication from silicone impressions of the wearer’s ears to ensure a precise fit.

Today Jerry, Mindy and team have built Ultimate Ears into a thriving company with an impressive 80% market share for in-ear personal monitors. The Las Vegas-based firm supplies earpieces costing up to $950 per pair to a Who’s Who of performers ranging from Celine Dion, The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson and Metallica to Avril Lavigne, Madonna, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil and U2.

In early 2004, the company branched out to the consumer market with new earphones specifically designed to be used with iPods and other MP3 players as well as DVD players, notebook computers and home audio systems. These new $550 models utilize the same technology and custom-molded design as Ultimate Ears’ professional devices but are specially tuned to optimize the sound of mastered music.

The result: crispness and detail that let wearers hear every note, word, lick and chord as clearly as if they were standing in the studio with Linkin Park, Green Day or Shaggy."

With a reputation and client list as huge as Ultimate Ears have, it's certain that they must be doing something right!

When the super.fi 3 Studio's arrived I was excited, as you can imagine. I've not only tested a bunch of different in-ear style earphones for the site before, but being a musician I've also had the opportunity to try many different kinds and brands over the years as well. Hearing a lot of good comments about Ultimate Ears, this was my first experience with one of their products.

When the box was unpacked, I was very impressed. The included accessory bundle is far better than almost any set of consumer level in-ears I've tried before. Included is a very high quality aluminium case, material lined as well. The bag of additional ear pieces is a fairly standard thing with earphones like this, a sample of each size/kind is provided. Once you find a style and size that fits you, Ultimate Ears sells them all individually online so you can pickup some more if you wish. A cleaning tool is also included to help clean wax out of the canal of the studio.fi's to always keep them sounding their best. If you're traveling and using these on overly loud airplane headphone jacks, an 1/8" airline attenuator adapter is also included, this could also be used anywhere when the signal is too loud and can not be easily turned down enough.

The cable is another accessory I'll talk about for a second here. Most consumer level in-ears have just a standard cable attached to them, nothing fancy. A lot just hang down though some manufacturers opt to make them the behind-the-ear style of cable. But with the cable just sitting there, it's easy for a little nudge or catch to have it pull the earphone out of your ear. This isn't the case for the cable on the Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio set of earphones! Like their custom professional line of in-ear monitors, the super.fi 3's use a detachable (and replaceable) cable. The section of cable that hangs behind your ear is reinforced with a bendable material so you can actually form the cable around your ear to hold the earphone tightly in place and prevent this area of cable from moving excessivly. The V section of the cable has a little slidable plastic piece so that once they're on you can snug that section up for a more comfortable fit. As I mentioned above, if this cable gets damaged or you want a different colour (white, black and clear available), you can easily go to the Ultimate Ears website and order a replacement without having to invest in a complete new set of earphones!

The earpieces themselves are styled very nicely and each also has a little UE logo on it. The pair we reviewed is black but they are also available in white and clear colours, with the cable being the respective colour as well.

In-ear style earphones are designed to isolate sound, as you probably know already. Ultimate Ears includes three different earphone tip styles with the super.fi 3's. There's the small, medium and large single flange, a set of double flanged and a set of the foam ear tips. Once you find the kind that fits your ear best for a solid seal, they're available for individual purchase from Ultimate Ears.

When using earphones like this, please keep in mind that they have their areas where they should be used and some where they should not. Since they block out most background noise, they aren't recommended if you're doing such sports like biking where you need to be able to hear cars and traffic. Same applies for doing any type of work around machinery, although they may be a good idea to block out the annoying machines on a job site, doing that could increase the danger exponentially. I was happy to see a warning on the box suggesting that the included manual be read because it also covers this stuff.