The 2017 King Aire Luxury Motor Coach “When your goal is to build the very best, you will stop at nothing to deliver the greatest the world has ever seen.” – Matt Miller, President, Newmar Corporation Designed and engineered to represent the pinnacle of luxury travel, King Aire showcases the very latest in style, comfort and technology. For 2017, King Aire boasts a reimagined exterior, led by dynamic pair of front and rear caps dressed with full LED head and tail lights. A Spartan® K3 tag axle chassis is the base for every 2017 King Aire, which now receives further backing from the Newmar STAR Foundation, a modern steel superstructure that delivers strength you can feel. Inside, you are greeted by a cockpit that further separates King Aire from its already distant competition. Contrasted cross stitching works its way across the dash, which houses a wireless non-slip charging pad, full LCD driver display and two 12.1” touch screens that can provide 360-degrees of outward visibility.
A custom-tuned, 11-speaker JBL® cockpit audio system provides the soundtrack, while exclusive fabrics from the Ralph Lauren® Home Collection set a rather opulent tone. View the King Aire 360º 2017 King Aire Walkthrough Video Luxury Has A New Look Have your sights set higher? Feast your eyes on the 2017 King Aire. The finishing touch on its totally redesigned exterior is a cut & buffed full-paint Masterpiece™ finish, a shining example of the work performed by our own in-house paint specialists. Below one of two Girard® Nova side awnings sits a specially designed sidewall where you will discover a 43” Sony® 4K UHD TV paired with a Bluetooth-compatible Bose® soundbar – all atop one of the tallest basements in the Class A segment. A 600-horsepower Cummins® ISX diesel engine produces torque on demand, and a long list of safety technology comes standard, including full disc brakes, electronic stability control, tire pressure monitoring and side-view cameras.
What’s more, Comfort Drive™ with Passive Steer technology works together to reduce steering effort and fatigue. King Aire gives you the tools to make each meal a success, from the gourmet to the everyday. Led by an all-new stainless steel apron-front kitchen sink, King Aire’s gourmet kitchen is complemented by a Delta® TouchH20 faucet and a drawer-mounted Fisher and Paykel® dishwasher. The 2017 King Aire can be had with your choice of Maple, Cherry or Rift Oak hardwood cabinetry, each capped by a high-gloss finish and full overlay doors. Dressed to the nines, the 2017 King Aire is decorated with fabrics from Ralph Lauren® and covered end-to-end by polished porcelain plank tile. Craving a midnight snack? Motion-activated courtesy lighting gently illuminates your path to and from the standard 19.7 Cf. Whirlpool® residential refrigerator. Both captain and co-captain receive heated and cooled Villa® front seats, which come covered in Pompeii leather by Ultrafabrics® and offer 6-way power adjustments.
The 49” Sony® 4K UHD TV is accompanied by a Blu-ray/DVD player and Bose® CineMate home theater system, creating the perfect opportunity to take in a movie from the pair of Villa® leather sofas. The Suite Of Your Dreams Above and beyond anything else in its class, the King Aire master bedroom is a lavish oasis. A headboard window with sliding panels acts as the cherry on top of a King-size Sleep Number® adjustable mattress. Assorted Ralph Lauren® fabrics contribute to a decadent décor, and More Floor adds porcelain tile to each and every slideout. Adding to this paradise on wheels is yet another 49” Sony® 4K UHD TV, Blu-ray/DVD player and a Bose® soundbar. Created to both energize and restore, King Aire’s master bath is available with an industry-leading 50”x 34” shower, fit with full tile and a Fresca panel with massage sprays and foot wash. A twin vanity presents two vessel sinks, dual medicine cabinets and a backlit full-length mirror. Up above, Cathedral Ceiling adds six inches of headroom to the master bath, and ultimate convenience is delivered courtesy of a Whirlpool® stacked washer and dryer.
For years, Consumer Reports – which recommends everything from what type of coffee you should drink to the safest cars – had made a conscious decision not to rate mattresses. The non-profit firm said its just impossible to compare mattresses because retailers each have their own brand names so the ones at Sleepy’s can’t be compared to the ones sold at Bedding Barn. However, Consumer Reports did the next best thing, asking its readers to rate their mattresses. And loyal readers came to the rescue, with 17,000 responding in October’s issue. Based on the responses Consumer Reports rated 10 mattress and 14 stores. The $2,400 Tempur-pedic came on top with a reader score of 83 while Spring Air, selling for $1,100 came in 10th place with a 66 rating. Original Mattress, selling for $890, came in second with a 52 rating. The Original Mattress Factory came in as the best retailer with a score of 88, (my favorite company, Costco came in 2nd) and at the end of the line was Sleepy’s, the nation’s largest mattress retailer.
Of course you won’t find this in The Courant because Sleepy’s is one of the largest advertisers at the oldest newspaper of continuous circulation in the nation, and we know how the new Courant management likes to protect its prime advertisers from unfavorable publicity.When it came time to choose a new mattress this past summer, I decided to wire up our bedroom with Sleep Number and Sleep IQ. Casper gets a whole lot of tech press, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear given their now commonplace bedding materials and a limited one-mattress-fits-all product lineup. Whereas I truly hoped to embrace technology as a potential means of enhancing our sleeping experience. Sleep Number seemed to fit the bill. And, four months in, we’re extremely satisfied with our decision. After hours of research, including extensive and appreciated online pre-sales chat along with an impressive Consumer Reports’ endorsement, I ended up purchasing the entry-level Sleep Number C2 model with a SleepIQ upgrade.
Interestingly, the same core components and functionality are found within all Sleep Number mattresses (that we’ll get to in a minute). What differs are things like padding and cover thickness or composition. Indeed, the Sleep Number C2 is Consumer Reports second highest rated bed… right behind the Sleep Number i8, but at 1/3rd the cost. Having replaced a pair of name brand mattresses the last few years, due to depressingly rapid deterioration, we’re appropriately conservative with ongoing bedding investments. Sleep Number’s claim to fame is producing an infinitely adjustable bed. This is accomplished by a small, shoe box-sized pump (aka the “Firmness Control” module) that is mated, via two clear tubes, to a pair of industrial strength air mattresses – one for each occupant. My pump fits under and behind our platform sleigh bed with plenty of clearance. When not actively inflating or deflating, as it is 99% of the time, it sits there silently. When in action, the pump does emanate sound – yet the to-be-expected noise is short-lived and rather mild.
Of course, introducing a mechanical component adds some risk in terms of reliability. But Sleep Number provides what looks to be a relatively reasonable 25 year limited warranty — full coverage the first two years, followed by a depreciating amount starting with year three – at 72% coverage, then dropping 4% a year. However, unlike my prior two failed mattresses, I also gain some peace of mind with a modular system. Should one component fail, I’m not on the hook for an entirely new bed. Sleep Number firmness is controlled via remote and, irrespective of bed model, all are wireless at this point. Although the more modern, sexier variant (along with a newer, quieter pump) isn’t bundled with the C2… unless you upgrade to Sleep IQ — more on that later. Button count varies, dependent upon how you trick out your bed (via, say, an adjustable base or temperature-controlled layer). My AA-powered remote is minimalist, as I like it, with four primary buttons. The side one toggles which of the two air chambers we’re interested in looking at, along with a customizable display label – like “Dave”.
Two buttons increase and decrease firmness in 5 point increments on a 0 – 100 scale and another button serves dual purpose as ‘menu’ and ‘select’. Picking up the remote turns on the display and immediately connects it to the pump over 802.15.4 RF. And, the real beauty is, you (and your partner) can adjust firmness whenever the mood strikes. I prefer a firmer bed and have generally settled in around 65 — raising pressure when I want it even firmer for TV-viewing or lowering it a bit the days I’m sore from the gym. My pregnant wife also prefers a firmer sleep surface (about 70)… at the moment. But I’m fairly confident she’ll significantly soften it up a few months from now. While the remote looks sharp and performs as it should, it doesn’t feel like the most solid accessory and the plastic screen is prone to scuff marks. Fortunately, there is another way… Beyond actual sleep comfort, what further piqued my interest in Sleep Number is their relatively new “Sleep IQ” technology… that brings smarts to your bed — with functionality similar to what one might find in an activity tracker or health monitor.
But, instead of some crazy powered strap you slip under a sheet or sleeping in a wristband that collects limited data from a single location, an entire Sleep Number air chamber becomes a total body measurement instrument. Sleep IQ is a $300 upgrade that includes the circuitry required to sample changes in air pressure, reportedly 500 times a second, and the wireless communication capabilities to get at that info. In the case of my base C2 bed, for that same fee, I ended up with an upgraded remote and compressor – score! Double bonus: The Sleep IQ smartphone app will connect directly to your pump as an additional, virtual Sleep Number remote. Sleep Number Sleep IQ knows my wife is pregnant, pees a lot. — Dave Zatz (@davezatz) July 14, 2015 Much of the Sleep IQ tech lives in the compressor – there resides the BAM Labs brains that collect the data, along with WiFi and Bluetooth. And, in talking with Sleep Number VP Pete Bils, the challenge is not in detecting movement but filtering out noise.
Indeed, the system is sensitive enough to pick up footsteps or dropped objects in the room. What does get captured, analyzed, and assigned a score (1-100) is heart rate, breathing rate, and presence… with the ability to distinguish an adult from a child or pet and without being impeded by a memory foam topper. In my experience, I’ve generally found Sleep IQ measurements both fascinating and on target – other than the periodic missed late night trip to the bathroom and the current inability to distinguish intentional wakefulness (while, say, watching TV) from restless sleeping as my Fitbit Charge does. @BenBajarin The trick with "health" data – is it actionable? By somewhat mating restfulness to bed firmness, it's far more useful than most. Many factors contribute to sleep quality, yet Sleep Number takes it to another level in terms of actionable intelligence. Jawbone may help you monitor caffeine intake, but Sleep IQ results can directly lead to Sleep Number adjustments.
Having said that, they too recognize the need for additional context… and provide a journaling feature online and within their mobile apps (which have seen several updates since I first installed them) – that I’m too lazy to put to use. In fact, Sleep Number commissioned a two-month 44 couple study that concludes folks were able to successfully improve their restfulness via Sleep IQ insights — along with some interesting tidbits like, for one woman, a cat sharing the bed quantitatively increased her restlessness. Welcoming the Internet of Things into your bedroom could reasonably lead to privacy concerns. For example, I assume Sleep Number can identify periods of, uh, adult activities. I asked Bils specifically if they could even calculate my body weight by the amount of air displaced … and he believes that’s doable. But the company’s Consumer Insight team runs focus groups to ensure they produce features that appeal (like kids bed uncarriage lighting) versus things that might creep us out and any shared data is deidentified.