Thank you. I cannot tell how much a difference will there be with the hardwired board but that board is great fun to do.
Yesterday, I tortured the kit for almost 12 hours straight and it
only got better. There is absolutely no hum (I have 94dB fullrange speakers), dark ink black background. With your MC you should hear even less. I was using a Tube Audio pre+phono with phono 6922 Telefunkens etc, the kit directly hooked to my Kit1 sounded miles better right away.
Just a humble suggestion, I used double heatshrinks as the wires are sometimes too short and too close, when you solder it is difficult to judge the behavior of the heatshrink.
Good luck and enjoy the board,
Regards, Zuheyr