Hi brass,
You are getting some good advice IMO and I would agree with TandL’s comments (and dn’s as well as I read back over a fast moving thread).
Sometimes it can be important to step back and re-assess the reasons why you are buying a mattress in the first place and in most cases the goal is to find the “best value” available in your budget range. I also think you may be getting perilously close to “paralysis by analysis” and trying to predict an outcome where you probably don’t have the theoretical knowledge, personal experience, or reference points to really know what you will end up with. While I am the first to encourage the use of good quality durable materials in a mattress … when quality is at the expense of PPP then there would be little point. They go hand in hand.
Assuming you are looking at mattresses that are inside your budget range … the most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is the functional value of a mattress which is how well it matches your unique needs and preferences in terms of PPP. If a mattress isn’t a good match for you and you don’t sleep well on it or if a design is fundamentally flawed, then it would have little value to you regardless of its cost or the quality of the materials or the options you have available after a purchase.
One of the risks of buying a mattress that is designed to sleep on by itself (without the addition of a topper) and then adding a topper to the mattress (that may not need one in the first place) is that you would have two variables in your choice which can be much more complex than only having only one (the mattress itself). When you can’t test a mattress/topper combination in person as part of a sleeping system then a topper is usually a good idea as a backup in case you make a mistake but not as a primary plan. The mattress that is underneath a topper and in particular its comfort layers can have just as big an effect on the suitability of your sleeping system and on how it feels and performs for you as the topper itself and buying a topper that is suitable for you in combination with a specific mattress where you haven’t had the chance to test the combination in person can be almost as difficult as buying a mattress. If your mattress already has a comfort layer then adding another one in the form of a topper can result in a sleeping system where the comfort layers are too thick and soft or where the comfort layers in the mattress end up becoming the deeper transition or support layers which can increase the risk of alignment issues and lead to poor quality sleep, pain, or discomfort. Of course this can also depend on where you are inside the range from “I can sleep on anything” to “princess and the pea”.
Once you are confident that a mattress is suitable for you in terms of PPP then the quality and durability of the materials is the next most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase. If a mattress is a good match in terms of PPP but it ends up only having a useful life of a few years or less before you have to “tolerate” the mattress then it would also have little value to you.
After PPP and quality/durability … then some of the other parts of your personal value equation that are important to you would also be important.
In general … buying a mattress with a separate topper would be more risky because the variables are so much greater and it’s important to recognize that all the theorizing in the world won’t likely get you any closer to knowing whether it will work for you. Don’t forget that while the Crazy Quilt may be the same type and quality/density of material as the support layer in the Camilla, it has a different design and the firmness levels of the foam may be very different because the support core in the Camilla is designed for use with a softer comfort layer above it and the Crazy Quilt is designed to sleep on directly.
If for some reason you decide to take the risk and buy a base mattress and add an additional topper, then I would first buy just the mattressand sleep on it for a few weeks and only then decide on whether it needs a topper. If your experience indicates that it does then I would use your sleeping experience on the mattress along with the topper guidelines in post #2 here and the posts it links to as the basis for your choice in terms of the type, thickness, and the softness/firmness of the topper.
Phoenix