Many years ago I built myself an audio "passive preamp". The I/O
switching section consisted of ten pairs of connectors and ten DPDT
center off switches. Each connector was routed to the center "common"
terminal of a switch, and all the "tops" and all the "bottoms" of the
switches were wired together - forming two busses to which any input
or output (or group of I/O) could be connected. Now I have too many
things to connect, and several of them have s-video to be switched as
well. So I'm looking for a bigger, more capable switcher.

I see lots of passive NxN switchers, but it appears they only connect
one input to one output at a time. That is no help in being able to
connect (for instance) VCR out to DVD recorder in, and DVD recorder
out to monitor in simultaneously.

The word "matrix" in the name doesn't seem to improve on that
limitation, but "routing matrix" seems to imply that one can create
more than one connection at a time. Unfortunately, all the routing
matrix switchers I've found are active and have four-digit $ prices. A
price of thousands of dollars is out of the question, and even if it
wasn't, I'd rather not add active devices between my audio components,
several of which are DC-coupled. Plus you are still limited to
dedicated inputs and dedicated outputs - you can't have a single cable
going off to another room and use it for I or O as needed. And you
can't have a single cable to a DV camcorder which swaps its single
connector between input and output.

Yes, I know, normal people use a home theater receiver. But if I'm
suspicious of the effect a multi-thousand dollar pro switcher would
have on my system, there is no way I'm going to inflict a mass-market
receiver on myself.

Is there really no such thing as a passive matrix switcher with
multiple internal busses, that can make multiple independent
connections among any of its I/O connectors? Or have I just not found
the proper search term?

Loren