It just occurred to me that my original HomePods, which I purchased very soon after they were released, are still going strong. I’m sitting in my recliner doing a little work and listening to Christmas music, including @MacSparky’s “Yule” playlist.
I must have purchased a good batch of speakers. 
Maybe, if Apple made more than one batch. You might just be very lucky. 
My last original HP died more than a year ago.
My original HomePod is still working. No issues.
Still working here too. Sounds great.
For all the talk I hear about them being slow - I don’t find that. Terrible at answering questions and always playing live versions of tracks from my voice commands, but useless Siri is not contained to a single device.
9 original HomePods and every single one is working just fine.
Might have been one batch produced, but willing to bet the failing capacitor came from one of many suppliers.
Three OG homepods still going strong here.
I have two original HomePods as a stereo pair still getting strong
Mine too, I use it every day and it’s just as good as the day I bought it (like you, I bought it soon after it was released).
I had two original HomePods as a stereo pair until one of them died in 2019. Unfortunately, I did not get it repaired. (Should have done that in hindsight.)
I bought a 2nd gen one as a replacement and was confronted with the issue that those two generations are not able to work as a stereo pair with each other (bad job, Apple!). I expected the remaining 1st gen HomePod to die soon after the first one had died, but it still is going strong. I am using those two HomePods with Siri “Play X in the living room” and I am fine with it as it is. 
I have 4 originals. All are working great.
I have three and they are all working well.
Yep.
Happy for everyone that didn’t have the hardware issue. 
I also have a pair of OG HomePods I love, that are going strong, even after one took a mysterious spill and got a crack on the top glass! No one in the house knew how it fell, hmm…anyway am thinking of getting wooden stands for them as I use them for Apple TV and stereo music listening.
It’s sad that we are trained to think that products are not meant to last more than a few years. Why would we expect them to stop working? I can see that a car would stop working after a lot of mileage because the parts wear on each other. But for something that literally sits there year after year with no moving parts, I’m not sure why they would stop working.
There was a design defect in some of the OG HomePods that broke them early. I would say well before thy were expected to break, but unsure how wide was that expectation. The expectation for the A chip to keep up with Apple OS updates was lower than for the speaker hardware; that’s probably the area where consumer expectations could be higher.
Because of “a series of ceramic 10uF 50V capacitors that degrade in functionality over time”? That, according to one source, is the reason for the demise of many original HomePods, including mine.
But, IMO, the real problem is because many of today’s speakers are “smart”. And being “smart” means they will probably need OTA upgrades in order to receive new features and/or security patches. For as long as the original manufacturer supports them. One of those bricked one of my HomePod minis.
If any of the expensive dumb speakers that I purchased or built in the last 50+ years ever failed, I could have easily repaired them with some mail order parts or a trip to Radio Shack. But “smart” speakers that fail out of warranty go straight to the recycler.
Which is why I currently only listen to music on speakers with replaceable power cords and RCA plugs. Smart speakers are just for talking to one of my digital assistants.
yes for all that I’m disappointed in the homepod, durablity is great!
I got talked into one at the apple store, and the claims were overstated it’s not very smart, doesnt integrate well & not very hi - fi
I have one of the original HomePods. It was a Christmas present from when they first came out. Was playing music on it earlier today when I thought the neighbours were out. The sound is still great, especially the bass.