Maybe. How about a guy like me who can't get my lousy semi-rigid tape measure to cooperate? Where is the best place on the baffle to measure from? To which side of my head? IME the auto programs I've used (MCACC, Audyssey in Pioneer/Onkyo/Denon avrs) do a good job of adjusting delay, and exact tape measured specs aren't really all that.
LOL. I have the same problem too when measuring long distances with the tape off a surface.
My solution is to use a piece of string, taped to the cabinet face with a piece of painter's tape. String out the line, mark, remove and measure.
To get toe-in I want, I use a laser pointer glued to a compact t-square. Mark the line of bearing with a yardstick and use painter's tape to transfer from the vertical. Thankfully, my speakers don't have curved cabinets!
You're right about the accuracy of tape measures. Nothing is absolute. Tape measures are best used as a comparative form of measurement if one wishes to eliminate resolution errors (there are still parallax errors to consider). That's why an experienced carpenter only uses one tape measure to take/transfer all measurements for a project.
But when a one foot difference in length is only 0.0009 sec at the speed of sound and a crappy tape measure will be accurate to 1/4" (or 0.000019 sec @ the speed of sound) over the same distance, I'll use the tape to measure and then manually input into the data into EQ if that is an option.
