I have a 35x50 three sided hay barn with metal poles set in concrete. Almost anything done inside that building will echo 500 yds down to the neighbors. However, my blacksmith shop is a metal building wrapped around large WOOD poles, because that was what I had at the time of construction (about the diameter of a phone pole). Does not ring at all but my wife can occasionally feel the power hammer running at the house, which is about 50-60 yds from the shop. It doesn't rattle the dishes but she sometimes can tell when it's going. Fortunately, my neighbors cannot tell when I am working and say even on a calm night that the sounds from vehicles and other sources drown out anything I do. The only time anyone knows I'm there is when the lights are on or they see an arc flash.
If I were you, I'd take an old galvanized trash can inside the barn and whale on it a bit - with doors shut and open. Let your wife move around outside from spot to spot to see if it's objectionable. Your barn may ring like a bell or be relatively quiet. The can will be noisier than anything you will likely do for real work.
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