That's a pretty good definition of transparency, as far as "transparency" is concerned.
That said, if the thing sounded exactly the same on as off, it would be a useless tool. People use compression because they like what it does to their sound, not because it does nothing to their sound.
"Transparency" is just another cork-sniffing buzzword, most of the time, though.
My ignorance might make it easy to
be condescending, Bryan, but it doesn't make it easy to spell it*, huh?
*Some might say that looking at the spelling in the very post you're quoting, or even using spell check, is easy, but everybody's at their own level, I guess.
I don't use a comp for what it does to my sound but what it does to my signal. "Transparency" a buzz word? naaaaaaaaaa!