Second order harmonic distortion. However the ear/brain picks it up and understand it, it picks it up as more instrument separation in most cases. I'm no physicist, audiologist, or neurologist, but it is my understanding that the effect is similar to what happens to sound waves traveling over distance through air of varying densities, and after bouncing, redirecting off objects in their path. People always associate neutral analytical as "perfect to what's on the recording", but tend to ignore that what's on the recording is unlikely to be what you'd hear at a live performance after the sound waves get done being heavily distorted by air and environment. So "tube distortion" actually tends to be closer to the real world distortion of sound waves getting to your ears after resonating out of an instrument body or vocal chords.