I've corresponded with Sid offline, first to poke at him for passing up the opportunity to sit in and fly in N174RT when he and Kelli were on Orcas Island last summer. He asked me if "the seats high price was worth it"?
Each builder/owner has to decide for themselves if something is "worth it". I'd recommend sitting in seats for a minimum of an hour before making a decision about their comfort. I think both CAD and Oregon Aero will allow a customer to have seat foam for testing before doing the final covering. Need extra lumbar support, tell them. Need something else special, ask for it.
I fell in love with the look of the Classic Aero Design seats and interior when I saw Gary Brown's RV-7, probably 12 to 15 years ago. The CAD seats have been a good value for us. Mine do not have headrest, do have Confor foam (formerly temperfoam), are leather covered and have seat heaters. (Sandy really likes the seat heaters.) I also bought front carpet, stick boots, gear covers and side panels from CAD. I did not get any carpet or cover for the baggage compartment. I built my plane to fly, not just to look pretty, so I spent my dollars on the user interface rather than paint (maybe someday??). The user interface starts with the seats. The longest flying day in N174RT for Sandy and I was about 5 years ago when we covered more than 1600nm. Dover Delaware to Billings Montana. (33N-KOXI-KABR-KBLI). We were both ready to get out of the plane at the end of the day, but not because of the seats. (Sure wish we had our CQ1 headsets that day!)
My first plane had custom Oregon Aero, leather covered, temperfoam seats. Before finishing my CH601 plane I flew in several other CH601's that had "economy" seats. I was frequently glad to get out of the seats after 30 to 45 minutes of flying. I flew my 601HDS on many 12 hour days and was always comfortable in the seat.
I like Confor foam / temperfoam for comfort and for possible impact protection in the event of a hard landing/crash. Note that the Confor form / tremperfoam is HARD when it is cold.
Both CAD and Oregon Aero are GREAT to work with.
Regards,