Yes and no. The magnets are needed for it to work, like speakers. Even similar to some headphones, rare earth NIB magnets. And we all know from SPM Fizik that anything that can vibrate will produce sounds. I can hear frequencies up till ~10,000 Hz. >200 Hz you can no longer see the arm vibrating, yet it does.
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Ohh the platter. You can see the probes and my fan reflected off the shiny surface.

I'm listening to a stereo setup now. Left channel old 5.25" hdd, right channel 20GB 3.5" hdd. The old hdd sounds louder.