export RSYNC_SKIP_COMPRESS=3fr/3g2/3gp/3gpp/7z/aac/ace/amr/apk/appx/appxbundle/arc/arj/arw/asf/avi/bz2/cab/cr2/crypt[5678]/dat/dcr/deb/dmg/drc/ear/erf/flac/flv/gif/gpg/gz/iiq/iso/jar/jp2/jpeg/jpg/k25/kdc/lz/lzma/lzo/m4[apv]/mef/mkv/mos/mov/mp[34]/mpeg/mp[gv]/msi/nef/oga/ogg/ogv/opus/orf/pef/png/qt/rar/rpm/rw2/rzip/s7z/sfx/sr2/srf/svgz/t[gb]z/tlz/txz/vob/wim/wma/wmv/xz/zip
rsync --skip-compress=$RSYNC_SKIP_COMPRESS .....

rsync -av --progress -e "ssh -T -c aes128-ctr -o Compression=no -x" source/ user@x.x.x.x:/destination

The key is leaving off the compression (-z) and using aes128-ctr on Ubuntu 18 (latest cipher support)