[threeseven]

Hardwired is ultimately more rugged and durable than PCB, and on low component density sets more convenient to work on. Very often a PCB has to be detached to access the soldered side, unless an access panel is provided. Obviously as component count became high, hard wired became practically impossible so PCB is the only way. Some makers were better than others at PCB's, lots of Philips stuff was horrendous due to very thin traces which would lift and break even with routine component replacement, regardless of how careful you were. I hated them at the time! Valve PCB's need careful design as the heat and temperature change cycles can cause trace failure. This can be seen on a number of TV's where valve holders were changed from low profile to standoff types, and trace thickness increased on later versions when long term durability problems were revealed during a given sets production. Some hardwired equipment is a joy to look at and work on, Solartron springs to mind as an example. They persisted with hard wiring into the transistor era.