I have yet to try a 750, but I've had the chance to try the 800 that a friend of mine asked me to resurrect from battery acid leakage on the motherboard. (And I was able to get everything, but FM going on that.) Anyway, I've found the 800's "S" meter to be close to the "S" meters in my Icom and Kenwood rigs. That dual display analog meter on the 750 is always a nice feature to have on any radio, desktop, or portable. Kind of a ballpark figure, but an S9 reading on older rigs with around a .25uV (Microvolt.), sensitivity would be a signal of around 30uV in strength. (A decent signal.) A +10 reading (S+10/9, ten over nine.), would be 10dB (Decibels.), over that S9 reading. And scaling up that meter would be the same, +20 on that meter would be +20dB over S9, and so on. As far as that 1 - 5 meter scaling? My $0.02 worth, it matches the 1 - 5 signal meter scaling that's on their lower priced and moderately priced radios receive meters. Since this is a receiver, there is no SWR (Standing Wave Ratio.), reading. That is only for transmitters and transceivers, so that's not what that is for. However, an antenna good low SWR reading on the transmit side can indeed compliment the receive side for better reception. I am kind of going off topic talking about SWR, but since you asked about it, I'll hit it. Generally, the radio transmission standard impedance is 50 Ohms. What an SWR meter tells you is how close, or how far, your antenna is from matching that. Anyway, I hope that this helps, and doesn't confuse you. (Anyone else want to add to this?)