Hello!
Needlesstosay, thanks to Phoenix and all the members here for providing such great info! I recently became disgusted with the mattress buying process after a trip to a local Mattess Firm. Do I have sucker written across my chest?
At any rate, brief background:
- 35 y/o w vertebral fusion at lumbar 4-5, pain EVERY morning and severe stiffness/lack of flexibility.
- Own Jamison Fantasy currently x 2 yrs. Pain better when sleeping in hotels (I travel 60% for work).
- Wife prefers softer mattress.
- Cost not an issue at this point, as we’ve saved up for this and are willing to spend on THE mattress.
I did not even realize you could get a custom mattress until I found this site! I have received info from 2 of the 4 custom guys that will ship to MS and have been impressed so far. I will be sure to give a detailed review/update after I decide and place my order, which should be soon.
Don’t want to name the companies just yet…for some reason, I just feel like it would be best if I waited. Is that silly? I know this is what the forum is for, but I’ve emailed Phoenix the details privately and asked his opinion.
Thanks again!
RW
Hi rwelch76,
In the end when you reach the point of comparing good to good … then any final decisions are really a matter of personal preference and subjective issues rather than one being objectively “better or worse” because there are so many subjective components to these types of choices that IMO nobody can say which is better or worse for another person. In other words … the goal of the site is to help people reach a point where all their choices are good ones and then get out of the way 
Your final choices are good ones and are members of the site which means that I consider them to have among the best value in the country … although for different reasons.
Your different options use different components as well and personal local testing on these components will likely indicate if you have a preference between them or even if it really matters to you. Without local testing … you would have to trust your “gut feel” based on your conversations with each manufacturer or past experiences on different types of mattresses. The choice between them would be based on your preferences, on the degree of customization you preferred … the material components that you prefer … and on your own subjective feelings about which of these choices best fits your “value equation” based on your conversations with the manufacturers, your level of confidence that the custom builds they offer will “fit” your needs and preferences … and on the services each offers about making exchanges if necessary if something needs to be fine tuned after you have slept on it for a while.
These are all questions that I can’t answer for someone else and the manufacturers themselves are far better at recommending a specific mattress they manufacture for each person’s specific needs and preferences than I am (they know every fine detail and have a large customer base that can help them “fit” different people to their different mattresses) so really there is very little I can add to what you already know.
It is not uncommon for people on the forum to ask me which of two great choices I think are better but unless something obvious has been overlooked or one would clearly be better than another or there are some “cautions” that I see (which I don’t in your case) … the final answer is really “I don’t know” because the final decision is really about the more subjective preferences that are unique to each person.
Phoenix