Grannyring:
As to your question about a 100% hard-wired SET kit, the Bottlehead Paramount 300B mono blocks come pretty close. There are, I believe, two very small PCB's in each block, but for the most part it's hard wired all the way.
Although the Kit 1 is a larger and more elaborate project than the Bottlehead Seduction phono pre that I built about 4 years ago, in some ways the Bottlehead was the harder build precisely because it's almost entirely hard wired. There are teeny little resistors that, for example, had to be soldered in between the pins of the valve bases.
That said, the Bottlehead designs are terrific (Paul Joppa is a first-rate designer). Additionally, their manuals are excellent and their online support forums are very active with supportive users. No question goes unanswered more than an hour or two.
I seriously, seriously considered building the Paramounts with their Bee Pre 300B based preamp instead of the AN Kit 1. In fact, I could've saved myself around $700 on the whole package during their Black Friday sale. But by the time you bought those three kits, the cost was about even with the AN Kit 1, and I'd also decided I wanted to simplify my rig down to an integrated amp.
Anyway, Grannyring, if you're interested in building a hard wired set kit, I'd give the Bottlehead Paramounts a serious look. Additionally, if you buy a preamp and amp together, you save 10% off the total.
