Bed sheets--what do you recommend?

[Finalen]

We were shopping today and quickly learned that thread count has little to do with softness. Some sheets we looked at (touched) were 680 count (Supima cotton) and felt much softer than some other ones we tried that were 1000 or 1200 thread count like this comfortersetreviews.com. I would imagine the softness/texture of the cotton itself is at least as important as how densely they are woven together. We didn't buy because the ones we liked at Macy's were not offered in the colors we wanted.

Any recommendations? We are willing to pay for softness, a quality that will last.

Thanks