Discs can be really strange. Sometimes I get discs that rip at 20x and sometimes 4x and both look pristine to the naked eye.
You said you had tried Apple Music, but I don't consider their ripping algorithm to be "good". A better test would be another program that has known excellent ripping behavior like XLD. You might try that, just to see if the speeds from XLD are similar to MC, or if they are faster or slower. Make sure to select "XLD Secure Ripper" in the options. It's not the same as JRiver's ripping process, but it's much more similar than something like Apple Music.
Good luck!
Brian.