Maybe the numbers are meaningful?

You are right, the numbers are not meaningful. I was going by a photograph of an old VU meter. An actual "VU-looking" meter would never be numerically accurate in an empeg visual because 0db is the top of the scale, but real VU meters will show over-clipping.

If anyone has an idea of how the numbers should really be displayed, I would welcome suggestions and make the necessary edits.