First off, thank you again for your prompt and supportive reply, and for this great site. I have learned so much about mattresses (colchones in Español) and mattress shopping…whew! I made .pdfs of all the information overviews and underlying pages, and referred to them often while shopping.
I would like some advice, but first some observations about Spain: it seems that the market (and marketing) here is remarkably (depressingly?) similar to the States, in pretty much every respect. That should tell you a lot. I was certainly more educated than almost all of the salespeople, and in fact we are planning on buying from the salesperson who was the most knowledgeable, because we really appreciated his knowledge and customer service. We are even having him order the mattress we want even though he doesn’t normally sell that line in his store, just because we liked him so much we wanted to give him our business.
WARNING: I am including a LOT of information here, thinking that it will help you in advising me, not wanting to send you on a web search if you don’t want/need to. I hope it’s not overkill. As thorough as you are, I don’t think it will be 
We have laid on many, MANY mattresses, in about eight stores. I certainly have a much greater appreciation for the range of quality offered. I also discovered that something that has been true about me for all my life is true here, too: I swear, you could put me in a blind taste test of the horse pee of Kentucky Derby champions (I know, eeww, but stay with me), and I would be able to pick out which one drank the most expensive water. Without knowing the prices in advance, I easily gravitated toward the most expensive mattresses offered. I was hoping to end up with something in the 500-800 Euro range (don’t try to convert, just think dollars), and am instead looking at 2,400-2,700 Euros.
So here’s where we ended up, choosing between two mattresses both made by Epeda (www.epeda.fr). They are owned by one of the biggest European mattress conglomerates, Pikolin. We looked for smaller dealers/manufacturers, and found little to choose from. Epeda also makes the MyBed mattresses used by sofitel (sofitel.com), a luxury hotel chain that has worked very hard to brand their sleeping experience, going to far as to offer their complete sleeping package for sale in their online boutique. Epeda has also been making mattresses since 1914. Their website is very informative too, with films of their mattress construction. Refreshingly, even though they sell via different dealers, they don’t do the name-switch thing.
The two mattresses are:
The Active Premium <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/Dedicace-Actif-Premium,350.html]http://www.epeda.fr/Dedicace-Actif-Premium,350.html[/url]> full tech spec .pdf here: <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/IMG/pdf/E_GG_DEDICACE_ACTIF_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf]http://www.epeda.fr/IMG/pdf/E_GG_DEDICACE_ACTIF_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf[/url]> and a great film showing the inner construction at <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/Le-film-Epeda-multi-actif.html]http://www.epeda.fr/Le-film-Epeda-multi-actif.html[/url]>. All in French, but Google Translate translates the terms thusly:
(description
7 comfort zones multi-active Technology
8 cm visco (heart + to winter and summer) sleeping 2 faces Face winter cashmere response was: natural silk
finishes
100% viscose jacquard fabric Padding through the mattress, hand-knotted Fairing integral reinforced handles four horizontal embroidered
Mattress associated
Association for soft comfort ideal mattress / boxspring
Support adjusted shoulders, lower back, pelvis latest generation of mattress springs: dimensionally stable and ventilated
Wrapping material, soft and pampering home more healthy and sustainable
Home fluffy, heat retaining softness and lightness, thermoregulation
Softness and shine
Home sweet sustainable
Tradition and know-how to the French Assisi comfortable lateral Easy handling and aesthetics)
and
The Air Premium <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/Dedicace-Air-Premium,348.html]http://www.epeda.fr/Dedicace-Air-Premium,348.html[/url]> full tech spec .pdf here: <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/IMG/pdf/E_GG_DEDICACE_AIR_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf]http://www.epeda.fr/IMG/pdf/E_GG_DEDICACE_AIR_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf[/url]> with a film also here <[url=http://www.epeda.fr/le-film-epeda-multi-air.html]http://www.epeda.fr/le-film-epeda-multi-air.html[/url]>. Google translation:
(description
7 comfort zones 1200 pocket springs multi-air
4 cm natural latex (winter and summer) 6 cm latex (heart) 2 faces sleeping face winter cashmere Face summer silk
finishes
100% viscose jacquard fabric Padding through the mattress, hand-knotted Fairing integral reinforced handles four horizontal embroidered
Mattress associated
Association for soft comfort ideal mattress / boxspring
Support adjusted shoulders, lower back, pelvis Renewal of air mattress 10 times a night, thanks to the patented air-regen
Material derived from rubber, flexible sustainable home comfort morphological depth
Healthier and more sustainable
Home fluffy, heat retention
Sweetness and light, thermoregulation
Softness and shine
Home sweet sustainable
Tradition and know-how to the French Assisi comfortable lateral Easy handling and aesthetics)
The Active Premium hasa support core with continuous coils interlaced with foam, and a comfort layer of viscoelastic (their term for memory foam) and an outer layer of natural materials. It was the initially-softer of the two models, and both my partner and I felt like we were laying on a slice of heaven.
The Air Premium has a support core of pocket coils, with a comfort layer of latex and similar outer layer of natural materials. It was the firmer of the two models, which surprised me. I expected the pocket coils and latex to make the mattress softer.
It’s a toss-up between the two. We like the softer Active Premium, but are a little concerned that it might be less durable in the long run than the firmer Air Premium because it’s softer. Is that crazy? I’m a big guy (6’4", 270) and my partner is much smaller (about 5’6", 140). I’m the one with more back/hip aches, sink more into the mattress, and need great support. I went into this thinking I’d want a really firm mattress, and was surprised to find that I liked a softer one than I thought I would. (I also laid on a totally-Talaly mattress that I really liked.) We also felt that, on the Active Premium/continuous coils mattress we felt a very slight propensity to sink toward each other, and didn’t on the Air Premium/pocket coils mattress. I was also surprised that I liked the one with viscoelastic/memory foam, and found it softer, as I generally don’t like memory foam–I usually feel sucked in by it, and feel like turing over is like moving through quicksand.
(You’ll love this: the mattress salesman at the store that actually carries these mattresses told us that the innards were exactly the opposite from what they were, and his sales manager agreed, even though there were little brass ID plaques on the mattresses and little brochures attached to each mattress, describing their construction. We didn’t realize the difference until the salesman at the store that doesn’t even carry these mattresses did some research and corrected our misinformation.)
Any thoughts you could share on these would be SO appreciated. I know they are confusingly similar: Active vs. Air, etc.
Btw, I tried to attach those .pdfs here, and couldn’t.
Thank you again for your help!
Bill