"Best way" to break into DSP programming

I've been wanting to get into DSP programming for awhile now. Im looking for a few low-cost ways to get started in that field with hopfully few barriers to entry. Can anyone recommend a good product line or toolchain to start with? ex: Maybe DSPic?

I haven't tried these yet but they look quite neat. **broken link removed**

This looks like a good start. I have an immidiate need for a streaming FFT and moving average filter (and maybe Kalman later) so hopefully this will get things off to a start. How about other common DSPs like the TMS320 series? Are there reasonably-priced startup kits for those also?

Alright, I little overdue here, but I finally got the Microstick in. Now just need to decide on a first-timer project for after I try out the example codes. The FFT thing can wait, so I'd probably focus on moving averages or a basic FIR filter.

I suggest that you gain an really good understanding of what DSP is all about and to that end I recommend "The Scientist and Engineers Guide to Digital Signal Processing" at The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing

Hope I'm not telling you what you already know.....

Susan

Honestly, without a specific project in mind, I'm not so sure a DSP controller is a good way to learn DSP.

There's plenty of software for simulation, and books on theory. You'll be able to see all the important things like a FIR's response and FFT's results with simulation, but that's hard to observe accurately and comprehensively with a hardware part here.

There's a lot to how to apply DSP to a hardware system once you KNOW DSP, but that's actually far less than understanding DSP itself.