DBLD, as AVGURU mentioned I did listen to the Bel Canto PL1-A in New York, together with the Burmester 001 and the Esoteric X-01. My detailed findings are posted at the following URL:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1090867688&openfrom&3&4#3
In a nutshell, the Bel Canto produced a huge but somewhat unstable soundstage with floating images in the three dimensions. Bass was extremely tight, transient coherence was excellent, and microdynamics was good, bbut not quite as good as in Esoteric X-01. Here appear to be a residual thinness in the midrange. You will find more detail at the URL listed above.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1090867688&openfrom&3&4#3
In a nutshell, the Bel Canto produced a huge but somewhat unstable soundstage with floating images in the three dimensions. Bass was extremely tight, transient coherence was excellent, and microdynamics was good, bbut not quite as good as in Esoteric X-01. Here appear to be a residual thinness in the midrange. You will find more detail at the URL listed above.