My iTunes shows the time remaining as well as the speed (e.g. 12.2x) for each track when “importing”.
The odd thing is that this speed factor varies wildly: from 2x to 18x. Why would that be? Is it my computer or something else?
My guess is that it’s just other applications eating up processor time. Encoding audio files is very processor-intensive, and if you have Word, Firefox, and AIM running in the background, things are going to go slower. I find that my ripping speed usually doubles or triples if I quit other applications while I’m ripping.
Also, I’ve found that my older, more ‘damaged’ discs take longer to rip. They play just fine, but it seems like the scratches make it harder to rip at the higher speeds.