Hey, thanks for this great reply! I am glad you knew of the product, and had thought it out a bit. I too am curious what Sensei thinks. Just a quick tweak. You are right, a standard Split King is 7598 when on sale (Sales rep told me that they are predictable in there 1k reduction on holidays, the sales begin on the Mondays). Im curious if there is sales tax if I bought online. That's something ill investigate. As for the parts durability your right, if not under warranty the cost may be a bit high---but, it is a 10 year warranty, and so if after 10 years, I need to spend 300-500, I actually am ok, because I am adding many years to a good sleep. To be honest, I think when my wife sells her next house, we would put half-down, and finance the other half as I use this to help improve her credit. My guess is ill be back at that retail store in the near future to re-rest...without my 2 year old, so i can lay on it for some 30+ minutes and let the bed auto-adjust.
Also, a side note about the auto-adjust. You dont have to enable that!. As they were walking me through the app, you have multiple options. You can pre-program a "back" program, a "side" program, you can let Auto adjust set a reasonable baseline, save and adjust it, etc. But what I liked a lot more, (and im a data guy, fair warning) it uses heuristics to measure hundreds of spots, to monitor your sleep patterns, and learn from not on you, but others. I asked the guy, and he mentioned that if my arm hurts, and it sees me tossing and turning, its going to learn from that. I can either have it auto-adjust, or I can use the nightly results to adjust accordingly. Dont think its automatic---that is optional. The sales rep suggested start with automatic to get a "reasonable firmness/config" and after a few nights, then slowly tweak each piece, and he said to start with my hips then shoulder (as he felt the other spots for my wife and I wont be a problem). Oh, and to you Mattrebuild, he called out that her and my hips and shoulders are a bit wide--and agreed that is the same issue he has and why this bed might be a good fit. (he mentioned his shoulder before i mentioned mine!).
I'm thinking I am eyeing a "Eastern King Split Top" which actually is 5899. We have a 2 year old, and as such the sales rep said---if you have a full split, not only are you paying more, but your taking away an opportunity for your kid to lay between you. He also made mention of how full splits "travel apart" and you would be constantly re-adjusting them back together. Though I am not horribly concerned about this, it is a good point. Also for intimacy, having the lower 3/5 not split, I could see some value. The rep still used the adjustable base, to raise one side of the beds feet, by some 8+ inches, and it allowed me to lay flat without much issue. But the rep was also trying to convince me that its not only cheaper, but that if my issues are rectified by laying on my back with a small include top and bottom, it would be a non-issue anyways. His feedback was he often hears complaints of split kings, but not top-split kings. I thought that was interesting. And of course, buying split-top king sheets doesn't sound fun. But when you go the split-top, its basically the same price as the Temperpedic KING that I was eyeing, and significantly cheaper than a Temperpedic Split king. So I see it as actually possibly a cheaper option!. On a side note, and the reason I rant on this, is my wife when pregnant, hated laying on her black---flat. She would use some 7 pillows to position herself well, and proper herself up. This split-top king would solve that problem entirely. So, just a thought.
The sales rep did acknowledge the "flobed concept" likely would solve my problem, he ultimately just said--they are heavy, floppy, and your going to be unzipping and tweaking for a while. He did not take its credibility away, and thought extremely well of Talalay. They don't sell it anymore because the company they sold switched to eCommerce a year ago. They sell a dunlop mattress now, but said it wasnt very comparable. I got to admit, this guy was very low pressure sales--and I appreciated that!.