I use m4b-tool[1], tone[2] and audiobookshelf[3] together with an LG G5 H850 smartphone[8] with Bang & Olufsen Hifi-Plus Module for Audio Only and I am pretty happy with this config. For Music I use Navidrome[5] and Substreamer App[7]. Maybe I'll try out Jellyfin[4] or maybe Plex[6], but I really don't wanna go closed source.
I also thought about writing something self hosted in C# to have ONE solution for audiobooks, podcasts and music and started a small private project, but this will take a while until it is ready to release something...
You may ask: Why an LG G5 H850? Well, its relatively small and cheap (about 50 - 80 bucks used) it has an audio Jack, USB-C, you can change the battery, it can hold up to 2TB microSD storage, has an HiFi Plus module for audio enthusiasts and a descent screen. Besides that it can run lineage os...
Note: I'm the author of the first two projects :-)
Cool that phone is a nice find. I also find having a separate audiobook phone nice (smaller, better battery life,no notifications when I'm 'reading'). But I went for the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. It's really underpowered but super tiny so can fit in a pocket with my other phone, has a great battery life, and expandable sd card. I haven't paid for a 2tb sd card but a 512 gb works fine and is almost full now
The Android app 'smart audiobook player' is a godsend, really thoughtful app. And you can use an equalizer to reduce high pitch tones which I find easier to listen to
Took me a while :-) I first bought a Nokia 1.3. Also has Audiojack, interchangable battery and is pretty "smallish" (still 6", but there is NO phone that is the size like an iPhone SE). Unfortunately, the Nokia 1.3 has Android GO and is so underpowered, that it did not work for me.
Samsung has also some nice small phones, I also thought about the S3 mini, but the LG G5 was nearly the perfect fit... could have been a bit smaller though.
I also thought about writing something self hosted in C# to have ONE solution for audiobooks, podcasts and music and started a small private project, but this will take a while until it is ready to release something...
You may ask: Why an LG G5 H850? Well, its relatively small and cheap (about 50 - 80 bucks used) it has an audio Jack, USB-C, you can change the battery, it can hold up to 2TB microSD storage, has an HiFi Plus module for audio enthusiasts and a descent screen. Besides that it can run lineage os...
Note: I'm the author of the first two projects :-)
[1]: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool
[2]: https://github.com/sandreas/tone
[3]: https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf
[4]: https://jellyfin.org/
[5]: https://www.navidrome.org/
[6]: https://www.plex.tv
[7]: https://substreamerapp.com/
[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_G5