From some advice here and the HTF, I have almost decided to go ahead and get the home theater direct level three Combo Y w/o the subwoofer. For about $700 I can get two floorstanding fronts, the center, and the bookshelves as rears, all level threes. Thanks so much for everyone's advice. Now, I have no clue on what speaker whires I am going to need or anything else. I have basically read that a lot of people just go with home depots 12 gauge wire and some mentions of banana plugs but I have absolutely no clue on what to do with them. I would much rather go with prebuilt cables if I can help it cause I am not good at putting things together. I could use any advice for newbies or areas to look in. I have a Pioneer 509S receiver if this helps and I believe it has a Center channel preout......whatever that means. Thanks for all the help and future advice.

I would just go with the 12AWG cable at Home Depot. It is cheap and will probably suit your needs fine.

I am not very familiar with HTD speakers, do they have binding posts or spring clips?

Does your Pioneer receiver have binding posts or spring clips?

Those answers would dictate whether you could even use Banana plugs or not

It says they all have 5-way gold plated binding posts. I just found out that my fronts and center have binding posts but my surrounds only have the spring mounted. Is this going to be a problem for because the HTD surrounds have binding but the receiver doesn't. Also, what is the Center preout thing on my receiver? Thanks for any help

No that won't be a problem, you just won't be ablt to use banana plugs with the surround speakers.

Unless you plan on moving the speakers often you should probably stick with bare wire connections anyways, they are easy and cheap

The "center preout" is a line level output for the center channel sound. You would use this to connect an external amp to power your center channel. It is the same thing as the "sub or LFE" output you run to your sub, it just sends the center channel infor instead.

I agree with Jumbojb here-

No need for bananas, Many view them as a compromise anyway.

I really am a newbie to this stuff so how am I going to connect them to the speakers. I can figure it out on my receiver because all my speakers right now just use the spring mechanism but I really don't get any of this. Is there just a speaker wire for dummies site somewhere.

When I buy the wire and if I don't use banana plugs......will it work kind of like the snaps I have right now or is there something I am missing?

Yes. You just strip some insulation and twist the strands together as normal. The binding posts will unscrew so you can insert the ends of the wire into the hole on the side, then screw them back down. Not much more complicated than changing a light bulb. Just make sure that you don't reverse polarities (keep track of which side went into the black post and which the red on the receiver and do the same on the speaker).

If I were you I would go with 16AWG wire because the 12AWG wire probably won't fit in the spring clips on the receiver.

I don't have a Pioneer so I am speculating on that though, but all the spring clip connectors I have seen are too small for 12AWG wire. However if all you have is 12AWG wire than you can just strip more than you need to thin it out so it will fit into the spring clips.

Remember red is positive and black is negative, I use the side of wire that has writing on it for positive and the black side for negative, some people do it the other way around, but as long as it is the same on both ends it doeasn't matter

As for binding posts on your fronts:
You unscrew them a bit and there will be a hole in the post, stick the bare wire in the hole and tighten it back down, simple as that

Good Luck!