I have been very happy with mine as well.
Perhaps I havent tried enough akacia ukuleles to know exactly what the usually sound like, but I am surprised by the slightly "messy" sound of mine.
Mine has kind of a slow attack when played, and while it has a lot of sustain, a lot of the volume and sustain sounds to me to be overtones and instrument ressonance as much the picked note itself. Is that what is referred to as bell like sound, or does my specimen sound different than most?
I like this sound for some tunes, but not for all.