Aside from the fact that the OP said he does not want a variant array,
my simple minded test suggests that the following is faster that what
you posted:

Dim r As Range
Set r = Range("A1:C13")
Dim arr2
arr2 = r.Value

Gary''s Student wrote:
Sub equiangular()
Dim r As Range
Set r = Range("A1:C13")
ReDim arr(1 To 13, 1 To 3)
arr = r.Value
End Sub

is one way