I used to have a #8 with meters and I reached out to Coda with this very question.
Their response and my questions below:
Red zone does not mean danger. The switch sets the 0 dB point to 5 or
300 Watts as indicated on the front. At low levels the difference may
be minimal on efficient speakers.
CODA
I wrote:
> Hello Coda,
>
> I received my new #8 last week and have been enjoying it, thank you. I
> am interested to know what effect the buttons have on the meters. I
> assume it is to toggle between the db range and the wattage(?) scales?
> Also some clarification as to the two scales on the meter, I get the
> db I think, but is the other wattage, and if the red zone is
> indicative of genuine danger :-)

