A few comments for what their worth:
Chris Thomas: Used to review (and may still do so) and worked for Audio Venue, Crystal Palace (Upper Norwood). AV were a good outfit to deal with and I never knew why they went out of business. Be that as it may, Chris was always attentive and more than once came to my place to check things out and see that my modest system was working OK. Whilst we might not have agreed on musical tastes, it was reassuring that someone with much more experience of hi-fi equipment than I gave my kit and itās set-up his approval.
Malcolm Steward: Perhaps one of the first reviewers to give cable dressing and other tweaking the importance it deserves. He had a web site Top Audio Gear which was always worth a look. Sadly, I donāt always meet his strictures.
Jimmy Hughes/Paul Benson/Peter Belt: I recall the former banging on about using mains twin and earth cable to power speakers. I wonder if he still subscribes to this view? Messrs Benson and (I believe) the late Mr Belt would urge you to scratch grooves/lines in your mains and speaker plugs. Likewise you were urged to align the screws on wall sockets, door hinges etc etc to be horizontal. Should you feel so inclined, you could also wrap one and a half turns of cellotape around any batteries in your house. Not to mention putting a small pin hole in any piece of paper in the listening room. All this would improve your listening pleasure.
I donāt subscribe to any of the contemporary hi-fi magazines although I give them a quick flick through when in WHS. For obvious reasons, I havenāt been able to do this recently.
I thought it was a decent review to be fair 
(Possibly reading this thread with interest and some trepidation)
Oh I remember that! ā¦mains cable - he swore by it (for a while!)
He really was. Funny how the flat earthers (wasnāt there a magazine CALLED the Flat Earth?) and the esoteric guys found common ground on that.
Iām pretty certain that you must be making this stuff up. Youāre making it up. Right???
I think Iām correct in saying the magazine was called the " Flat Response". It was not widely available except in hi-fi stores. Iām certainly NOT esoteric but could happily be termed as a flat earther in so much as I have a basic Linn/Naim system the origins of which go back to the 1980ās.
No, Iām not making this stuff up! I have before me a page from the Hi-Fi Review written by one Paul Benson. I would also quote (hopefully not breaching any copyright laws) "and one for everyone . If your listening room has books in it, just try placing a loose piece of paper anywhere inside one of them and listen again. Then try the same again and listen again. The effect seems to work better if you stop listening, make the adjustment then listen again rather than put a piece of paper in while the record is playing. The more books you treat the bigger the effect ".
If I had the technical ability Iād be happy to post these articles but it may not be legal ā¦
Personally, I found these claims by Mr Belt risible. If you want confirmation that Iām not making this stuff up please do some research .Having done so please let me kno.
Ah yes - thatās the one. I do remember it being more of a pamphlet than a true magazine - felt home spun - like early issues of Viz.
I think it had some decent people writing for it though. Iāll do a little research on it.
Iām absolutely certain itās true! ā¦you mistook my cod incredulity for disbelief - sorry - mad stuff indeed!
PSā¦ technical wherewithal is of course reasonable grounds not to, but Iām sure the copyright police have better things to do rather than drag you through the court system for posting a photograph of a magazine page you obviously lovingly retained for all these years!
The experience of hearing Apogee speakers at the Stereophile show in New York in the 1980s was unforgettable. The CD of Proprius Records āCantate Dominoā was playing, and people were amazed at how speakers a few feet from the rear wall of a demo room could convince listeners that they were hearing an organ in a church.
This is one of the most important things I have seen about audio gear, since I started reading about it in High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio, and Stereophile, in 1968.
From theabsolutesound, benchmark-ahb2-amplifier :
Benchmark AHB2 Amplifier
REVIEW by Paul Seydor May 13th, 2016
[Short excerpt]:
Well, the longer Iām in this racket, the less I sometimes think I understand what audiophiles really want except that a lot of dallying about with components, equipment swapping, and coloration matching seems to be what amuses them. Iām not sure I can in good conscience recommend this amplifier to them as I am not sure they are in search of what it offers: a precision instrument designed to perform the precisely defined task of reproducing music and sound accurately, which it does essentially to perfection.
Thank you, but I can confirm I never played bass in The Sweet.
Mr. Belts ideas were simply nuts.
Iāve known quite a few reviewers over the years through Malcolm Steward who was a mate from back in the early 80s. Iāve sat in many a pub with them over the years. As a photographer I shot stuff for Chris Frankland when Flat Response morphed into HiFi Review and Malcolm was itās main reviewer and Ian Rankin (of Rebus fame) was his assistant. It was an interesting time and I thought that they had an evangelical passion to bring the Linn/Naim philosophy to a world of Japanese HiFi buyers. Times change and the world moves on.
Later I shot stuff for Noel Keywood at HiFi World after HiFi Review folded. Noelās direction was completely different and far more technical. Alan Sircom was working for me at the time and went on to join him. I like Alanās writing style in HiFi+ and visually it easily the best designed mag out there, but the gear they generally feature is probably not for me but itās an interesting read nevertheless.
Letās not forget the ample contribution to Hifi Review from our very own Mr Meredith. It was Adamās music reviews that got me into the likes of Alpha Blondyā¦
They absolutely did - and evangelical is the word. They were passionate - and just a touch sneary of grossly inferior thinking - which I think we can forgive, but only on the basis they were right! 
Iād forgotten that was the what happened to the Flat Response by the way. Thanks.
I agree - itās a very nice magazine - and I also agree that I flick through it and think ānopeā¦not a single relevant product in there!ā ā¦the choices they make on kit they feature are extremely left field. Always room for the unusual - but when the unusual becomes the usual, well thatās less interesting.
Blockbuster review nonetheless 
Thanks again - I usually havenāt got a clue what to do.
( Hifi Plus)
Why?
What are relevant products for you? Just curious
A super piece here (quite a long read - but worth it) by Chris Frankland on The Flat Response.
https://thetomtomclub.ning.com/m/blogpost?id=6506457%3ABlogPost%3A9465
Iād completely forgotten the magazine existed - so thanks to contributors to this thread for reminding me about it.
I think itās probably easy to forget how pivotal a role magazines generally - and this one in particular - played in getting us to where we are right now.
Would Linn have been the success it was without it? ā¦Would Naim? ā¦would there be a British Hifi industry at all?
Anyway - itās a good readā¦
They pack a LOT of reviews in - some months there are lots of reviews of products and manufacturers that are super niche and feel a bit homespun.
I havenāt looked at Hifi Plus in many years. In the early days some of the articles were quite interesting. I believe there was an article by Roy Gregory that introduced me to Eleanor McEvoy and also quite a good article I think by Jimmy Hughes on buying used LP12s. Thinking about it I still want to hear the Lyra Connoisseur line stage following a rave review ā¦
I would also agree that some of the practices mentioned in the likes of Hifi Review (and the Flat Response) were a bit unusual. My brother still occasionally pokes fun at me and asks if I still sand paper the needle on my record player (Linn Green Stuff) or clean the contacts on the mains plugs in my house with brasso polish!
Brothers are like that in my experience. They see a weakness, exploit it. Continue to do so. Forever
I remember sitting in a pub with the editor of HiFi Answers and he and the other journalists bouncing ideas off each other for future articles over a beer or three. One was whatās inside the box and how much did the manufacturer spend on components? And compare it to what was the then retail price. I pointed out that profit was not a dirty word and the retail price had to take in a lot more considerations than just the cost of the bits. Needless to say that and the fact that advertising revenue might evaporate obviously made him drop the idea and it never published. 