BE,
no US-style cores over here in Australia - unless imported. Haven't used any at all. The "US" cores also look very strange to an Australian's eyes.
Here's an interesting picture which you may want to compare against:
Some fan PQ curves:
Panaflo
Delta AFB series
The WFB's that Bill used (I also had some) have been replaced by the AFB's.
The Panaflo L1A is fractionally weaker than the Delta AFB1212M, but apparantly a lot quieter. Delta's have a lot of "bearing" noise.