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Speaker wire (no connector)
Speaker wire consists of two leads, typically encased and bundled in plastic insulation — one for the positive signal, and one for the negative. Usually, speaker wire is marked (+) and (-) to help you distinguish between the two.

Though it's not an ideal long-term installation method, you can connect your speakers and receiver using just the bare, stripped ends of your speaker wire. Drawbacks to this approach include:

Stray wire strands, if not properly twisted, could make contact with the cable's other lead, and cause a potentially harmful short circuit.
Bare wire ends corrode, since they're made of copper. Most speaker wire connectors, on the other hand are usually coated with a corrosion-free material, such as gold.