New to the game, looking for help on this system

Ghorton, two good brands for many application are "Kimber Kable" and "Straight Wire." They both sell various series of cables at several different price points and have been a reliable choice over quite a few years. They should have some cable at a price point that would meet your needs.
http://www.kimber.com
http://www.straightwire.com

Another good option at a moderate price is "Discovery Cable." I don't know the pricing on the Discovery Cable, it may start at a higher level than you're interested in for now.
http://www.discoverycable.com

There are certainly other options, but these are two to explore. It you are not familiar with The Cable Company (an online retailer devoted to cables from a broad range of manufacturers), you might take a look at their offerings. They will actually loan you cable to try out in your system: give them a downpayment that will be applied to your ultimate pruchase, they'll send you several different cables that you select to try in your system, and then you keep what works best for your system and send back the rest.
http://www.fatwyre.com

Good luck on your search.
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Thanks much for the info Rushton, I'll be checking the sites. One more specific question I forgot to ask-coax or toslink?

"Coax or toslink" - that is outside of my experience to offer an opinion, sorry. (I'm just a struggling analog person.) Try a search of the archives to see what others may have said on this topic. Or, talk with the folks at The Cable Company.