Hi joesh,
[quote]I just had the opportunity to see and briefly try a Samina bed (I slept on it for about an hour). It’s quite expensive but very interesting. I was particularly struck by their active slat system. It uses latex “springs” to let the slats conform to your profile.
Anyone have any experience with this? The bed has been around for 20 years so I’m surprised this is the only place I’ve seen this system employed. It felt very good for that hour. :-)[/quote]
I don’t have any personal experience with their sleeping system but I can make a few comments that may be helpful.
The Samina mattress certainly uses high quality and durable materials (latex, cotton, wool, and wood) and they also have an earthing pad (see here and here) and magnets (for those who wish to sleep in a north south magnetic field) which are also fairly unusual to see in mattresses.
Their slat frame is also an “active” part of the sleeping system that would have a similar function to some of the other flexible slat support systems (some of which can also be adjusted for firmness in different areas) that are listed in the foundation post here. These are most beneficial with thinner mattresses on top of them because thicker mattresses can reduce the effect of the flexible support system. There is more about the pros and cons of these types of “active” and flexible support systems in post #2 here and the posts it links to.
There is also more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here and while they could certainly make a high quality and durable choice and in some cases a higher priced mattress may be “worth it” for a particular person that has specific or unusual criteria that aren’t available in lower budget ranges … if you are looking at mattresses in these higher budget ranges I would make sure that you make some careful comparisons based on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you so that you are satisfied there is a compelling reason and “enough” of a difference between the Samina and other similar mattresses or sleeping systems that may be just as suitable in terms of PPP and just as durable that are in lower budget ranges to justify the higher cost.
Phoenix