Hi scottsschluter,
One of the most important criteria in buying a mattress is that you are able to find out the quality of the materials that are in it. This is one of the main reasons that I suggest avoiding many major brands because in most cases they don’t disclose any meaningful information and for the few mattresses that they do the “value” is not there compared to other smaller manufacturers that use similar materials and designs.
If you know what is in a mattress then you can make meaningful quality and value comparisons regardless of any other preferences you may have. A local manufacturer or retailer that doesn’t disclose the materials in their mattress … regardless of the manufacturer … would be no better a choice than a major brand because you still can’t find out the quality/durability of what you are buying.
No matter how well you test a mattress for PPP (posture and alignment, Pressure relief, or Personal preferences) … if the materials are low quality then how the mattress feels and performs in a showroom won’t last.
One of the most important parts of mattress shopping is to put the odds in favor of the consumer by knowing how to tell the quality and “value” of a mattress and being able to make meaningful comparisons. This will be a lot easier if you are able to 'connect" with experts that have the knowledge and experience to educate and inform their customers about what is in their mattresses and who put their customer’s long term interests above their own.
Overall I’d say you are doing well so far 
[quote]These three are closest:
ecinindustries.com/index.htm
www.themattressmaker.com/retail.php[/quote]
All of these are on the list of better possibilities and your odds will be much higher of dealing with people who are knowledgeable and experienced and will disclose what is in their mattresss … which is the reason they are on the list. These would certainly be among the better options in your area.
[quote]Let’s try on this one:
barbos.com/product/eco-friendly-latex/[/quote]
This is a good example of a mattress that uses all high quality materials and has no obvious weak links because it contains all Talalay latex. Of course that still doesn’t mean that the mattress will be suitable for your needs and preferences in terms of PPP or that it’s good value but knowing what is in it gives you the ability to make meaningful quality and value comparisons to other mattresses that are similar. Gold Bond is an old independent manufacturer that will disclose what is in their mattresses which is one of the reasons I like them and they are included as one of the “better” options in many of the lists throughout the forum.
You can read more about Gold Bond in post #4 here and the links it includes.
The density of latex is not a “quality spec” because it only relates to the softness or firmness of the latex which you can test in person … not to the quality of the latex.
With polyfoam and memory foam, density is a “quality spec” which relates directly to he durability of the material.
With latex … the type and blend of the latex is the information that you would need to know to make meaningful comparisons between different types of latex.
The upper layers of a mattress are generally the “weak link” of the mattress so I would tend to avoid more than “around an inch or so” of undisclosed or lower quality /density materials in the upper layers. If a mattress has 2" of firm polyfoam in the bottom layer than this would not generally be a durability issue but if the mattress has 2" or more of lower density polyfoam in the upper layers than this would be a factor in the durability of the mattress. You can read more about the many factors involved in durability in post #4 here and the other posts it links to.
Phoenix