Hi patcarrol,
In a word … no. The only way to tell real value is by knowing what is in the mattress rather than the brand name and most of the largest brands don’t publish this to prevent meaningful comparisons with other brands … or even in many cases versions of their own mattresses. Some of the smaller or second tier national brands do make some mattresses which tend to have higher quality ingredients in a given price range but this isn’t a “brand recommendation” as much as it would be a preference for a specific model in those instances where the materials are known (which most often isn’t the case). In general though … while the smaller national brands tend to have better value than the larger ones, they are not in the same league as most smaller local or regional factory direct manufacturers or smaller wholesale manufacturers who sell through sleep shops.
Every large manufacturer makes some mattresses that use higher quality materials but even then, in almost all cases, even the sale prices (which are mostly fake) still puts them out of competition with smaller manufacturers who use the same materials but sell these mattresses every day at a much lower price. If you were to find one of these with a substantial discount over the best “sale” price … then they may compete.
While some of the smaller national brands do make some mattresses that may have better value than the larger ones (depending on who is selling them), because some of these are made differently by different factories in different areas of the country or make a dizzying array of models sometimes specifically for a store … even with brands in this next tier down it’s important to go by the ingredients in each mattress rather than the brand. They would not be in the largest brands (Sealy, Serta, Simmmons, Tempurpedic, Comfort Solutions (King Koil), Select Comfort, Kingsdown) or any of the brands that are owned by these. These second tier would include names such as Englander, Restonic, Therapedic and others and as you get into even smaller brands from here (Such as Jamison, Gold Bond, Pure Latex Bliss and many others) the value can become better yet. There can sometimes be good value among these if the materials and the price is right. This group (smaller national brands) in other words would include some mattresses that are better value than what most people buy but not as good as most local or regional manufacturers. Most of the best “brands” are ones that the vast majority of people wouldn’t recognize except perhaps in a local community.
Many, if not most smaller local and regional manufacturers have a consistent pattern of using higher quality materials in every price range and and as a group offer consistently higher quality and value than any of the larger brands including most of the “exceptions” I just listed. Most of these are family owned and have been in business for several generations. This is especially true for those who sell factory direct to the public or through local sleep shops that are close to where they manufacture. This doesn’t mean that every local or regional manufacturer offers great value because there are exceptions here as well but most of them will tell you what is in every layer of their mattress which makes it much easier to find the exceptions.
Post #2 here should help 
Phoenix