Hi tydfan,
Regardless of the quality or value of a mattress … if they don’t “work” for you … then of course they would have little value for you. That’s unfortunate.
Did you call the outlets that I listed? Some of them seemed to be fairly well informed and one of them had 20 Jamison models on their floor according to what they told me on the phone. Were they feeding me a line?
Unfortunately … none of these are “quality specs” and say nothing about the density/quality of the materials in the mattress. It’s also not very likely that you will be able to get any meaningful specs about the Beautyrest Black because they don’t supply them. Without knowing the details of the layers … it is wise to assume that there is more low quality foam than you would want in a mattress in this price range. You can go down the road of trying to track down the materials but it will lead to dead ends and if you are somewhat successful in finding partial information … you will find in each case that the quality/value is low. I truly wouldn’t recommend a major brand because you may be buying a mattress that feels good now but it is much more effective to buy a mattress that not only feels good in a showroom but that you know will feel just as good in a year or two down the road. IMO … this is really not the way to go unless you are OK with the risk you would be taking.
Just a few examples include …
1" GelTouch: Needs density information
1" Luxury Firm Comfort Foam: Needs density information. Most likely 1.5 lb polyfoam or less
1/2" AirCool Memory Foam: Needs density information. Most likely lower density 3.5 lb memory foam.
1 1/2" Energy Foam: This is likely a little higher quality HD polyfoam but still unknown density/quality
For me … there would be too many question marks and too high a risk of using lower quality materials to consider this and this is the type of mattress that much of this site warns about … a major brand that uses lower quality materials and is overpriced. The coil system is good but the weak link is the layers above the coils. The warranty coverage is mostly meaningless with mattresses today because the biggest issue is foam softening and loss of comfort and support which is not covered by any warranty.
The Spring Air is a fairly common construction with 3" of talalay latex over a polyfoam support core. Jamison has a similar mattress and there are others as well. Even the Costco road show sells it for less than the prices you mentioned (you can post #6 here) but either way the prices are on the high side. If you are comfortable with ordering online … then there are even better values with similar constructions. I would focus on the materials … not the brand and especially not the model name which can change from retailer to retailer.
A couple of examples of similar constructions (not the same but 3" of latex over polyfoam) are …
Phoenix